Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the World myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
In the first visit by a US president while Israel is at war, Joe Biden urged the Jewish state not to be “consumed” by rage in its reaction to deadly incursions by Hamas this month, to avoid repeating Washington’s “mistakes” after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
During his visit yesterday, Biden joined Israel in blaming a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital on a misfired rocket by Palestinian militants, citing Pentagon data. But he also called for “clarity” about Israel’s war objectives and whether it was on course to achieve them.
Israel is in the midst of preparing for a ground offensive into Gaza that many fear could further stoke tensions in the region. Biden told reporters aboard Air Force One that there had been a “long talk” with the Israelis about “alternatives” amid fears of more civilian casualties and an expansion of the conflict.
Biden called on Israel to let emergency aid through to Gaza, saying the country risked “losing credibility worldwide” if it did not “relieve the suffering of people who have nowhere to go”. He said yesterday evening that Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had agreed to open the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza to allow in up to 20 trucks of humanitarian assistance. The US president said aid could reach civilians by Friday.
Israel had earlier said it would not prevent “humanitarian assistance from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine” for civilians in southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled. It added that passage of the aid was conditional on the supplies not reaching Hamas, which controls Gaza, while Biden said there would be “inspections” of the shipments.
Here are the latest updates from the war.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
-
US existing home sales: Economists have forecast that sales of existing homes in the US declined in September to an annualised rate of 3.9mn units, down from 4.04mn in August as the higher mortgage rates deter buyers
-
Blackstone: The New York-based private equity group is set to report its third-quarter results. The group surpassed $1tn in assets under management for the first time in the second quarter. Investors will also be keen to learn how the group’s distributable earnings, a proxy analysts prefer as a gauge for the firm’s cash flows, held up in the quarter, after falling in the previous quarter thanks to a slowdown in dealmaking and initial public offerings.
-
Jobless claims: New applications for unemployment aid are forecast to have increased to 212,000 in the week ended October 14, compared with 209,000 claims a week prior.
Five more top stories
1. Republican hopeful Jim Jordan lost his second vote to become US House Speaker. He faced opposition from 22 members of his own party. Another ballot could take place on Thursday afternoon at the earliest, Jordan has signalled he is willing to endure several rounds of voting to clinch the Speaker role. Read about the fractious vote for the speakership here.
2. Russia has detained Russian-US citizen Alsu Kurmasheva for what it calls “targeted collection of military information”, according to press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists. The journalist, who works for Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, could face five years in prison if found guilty. Find out more about the arrest here.
3. Netflix will raise prices for subscribers in the US, UK and France, effective immediately, after the streaming service added 9mn subscribers in the third quarter. The better than expected figure and a growth in revenue were attributed to its crackdown on password-sharing. Here’s how much more subscriptions will cost.
4. Exclusive: Meta’s chief artificial intelligence scientist has argued against premature regulation of AI, which he says will only reinforce the dominance of tech giants and stifle competition. Yann LeCun said some big tech companies had a “superiority complex” that only they could be trusted to develop AI safely, which he called “incredibly arrogant”. Read the full Financial Times interview.
5. Sanctions on Venezuela imposed by the US have been partially lifted after talks between rival political parties resumed. The US Treasury Department has allowed transactions in the county’s oil and gas sector to resume for six months. “Failure to abide by the terms of this arrangement will lead the United States to reverse steps we have taken,” said US secretary of state Antony Blinken. Read the full story here.
News in-depth
Mexico is planning to revive an ailing railway system spanning the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean in an ambitious bid to capture traffic from the Panama Canal. The project has already cost several billion dollars, but officials believe the project could revive the country’s poorer south.
We’re also reading and watching . . .
Chart of the day
The US economy’s lead over that of Europe is set to last into 2024 and beyond, experts forecast. The trend was first evident in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and cemented during the coronavirus pandemic, but what explains the persistent divergence between two of the world’s richest regions?
Take a break from the news
Errol Morris was once described as “the best private detective in America”, the filmmaker tells the FT about making a film about legendary spy turned novelist John le Carré and the art of interviewing.
Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Benjamin Wilhelm
