Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Update: reporting on the Gaza hospital story has changed substantially in the past day or so—here’s a solid piece on what we seem to know, now (h/t for the recommendation), and here’s one about how/why the story has changed.
More protests expected across Middle East after Gaza hospital blast
Summary: An explosion that reportedly killed hundreds of people at a hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip has sparked protests across the Arab world—Hamas blames Israel’s airstrikes for the deaths and Israel blames rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Context: This explosion—whatever the source, though most of the evidence currently points at Israel, regardless of whether the strike was intentional or not (see update above)—has massively complicated diplomatic efforts to keep the conflict in Gaza from expanding to encompass more of Israel and potentially the Middle East, more broadly; US President Biden was meant to visit with local leaders in Jordan while in the region, but that meeting was cancelled as security forces in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, and Iran struggled to keep protests from becoming violent; more than 1,400 people were killed by Hamas sneak-attack strikes into Israel that began on October 7, around 200 people are still being held hostage by the group, and the UN estimates that more than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli counterattacks in Gaza, so far.
—The Guardian
Extreme drought drives Amazon River port to lowest level on record
Summary: Major Amazon River tributaries are reporting record-low water levels, raising concerns that the world’s largest watershed may see further deterioration accelerated by human-caused deforestation and drought-amplified wildfires.
Context: More than 11,500 fires were tracked in the Amazon Rainforest the first half of October, and the air-quality in some parts of the region has hit “very unhealthy” levels several times in the past week; lower water levels in an area defined by its river systems threatens transportation, trade, dam-produced energy supplies, and access to drinkable water for populations throughout South America, alongside an abundance of local plants and animals.
—Axios
US tightens curbs on AI chip exports to China
Summary: The US government has announced new restrictions on selling advanced semiconductors to Chinese entities as part of a larger effort to keep China from surpassing the US in AI and other multi-use technologies.
Context: This comes about a year after initial restrictions on these sorts of sales to China were implemented, which made it a lot trickier for Chinese companies and agencies to acquire the highest-end computer chips produced by Western companies; for their part, NVIDIA and Intel don’t seem too concerned about these enhanced limitations, which are mostly focused on closing loopholes in those previous restrictions, as both companies are having trouble serving existing, non-Chinese demand for their AI-optimized hardware, through there’s a chance that once their supply chains are recalibrated to meet those newfound demands, these restrictions could negatively impact their bottom line.
—The Wall Street Journal
Location of the hospital mentioned in the story above; squarely within the area Israel’s government has been targeting, though also where a lot of Hamas (and other militant groups) are reportedly based.
—Bloomberg
6.1%
Drop in reported murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in the US from 2021 numbers, according to the FBI.
Other sorts of violent crimes were also down during this period, though property crimes were up a bit, and motor thefts were up by a whopping 20%.
—Axios
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