Tuesday Briefing: A ‘recurring nightmare’ in Gaza

Plus, Canada expelled Indian diplomats.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 15, 2024 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering devastating Israeli strikes in Gaza and the latest from the U.S. election. Plus: Canada accuses top Indian diplomats of crimes. Palestinians surveyed the damage at a camp for displaced people on the grounds of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza after an Israeli strike on Monday. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock A 'recurring nightmare' in Gaza Dozens of Palestinians were injured or killed by Israeli strikes in central Gaza yesterday morning, one of which hit the grounds of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, according to health officials and the U.N. Scores of families had set up camp in the hospital compound's parking lot, hoping that international laws prohibiting attacks on hospitals would make it a safe place to shelter. The strike left a trail of destruction and horror: flames jumping from tent to tent, shrieks of agony and charred human remains. "It is like living inside a recurring nightmare," said Mahmoud Wadi, a 20-year-old whose extended family had been living on the hospital grounds for months. He said it was the seventh hospital strike his family had witnessed. "Every time we sleep, we wake up to this same scenario of tents struck, people screaming." See video from the site. Context: Israel has come under repeated criticism for hitting civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, during the yearlong war in Gaza. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had been targeting a Hamas command center near the hospital. The fire that erupted afterward was probably caused by secondary explosions, it said. Human shields: Israeli troops have regularly forced captured Gazans to carry out life-threatening tasks, according to a Times investigation. While the extent and scale of such operations are unknown, the practice is illegal under both Israeli and international law. Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are less than a percentage point apart in five of seven battleground states, according to a Times polling average. From left: Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times A close race gets closer With three weeks to go to Election Day, The Times's polling average shows Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump essentially tied across seven battleground states. "It's hard to think of any election when so many critical states were so close in the polls at this stage," my colleague Nate Cohn writes in this analysis. In such a tight race, even the slightest movement in the polls takes on outsize significance. For that same reason, even a modest error in the polls could yield a very different result. Either candidate could win decisively. Policy: Harris and Trump both have child tax-credit plans, but their approaches are very different. More on the U.S. election Americans head to the polls in less than four weeks. Control of the Senate appears likely to flip from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the Nov. 5 election, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College. Trump is stoking resentments and pointing to scapegoats in an attempt to convince Black and Latino voters to support him. Watch or listen to a political round table with Times journalists and The Daily's Michael Barbaro as they discuss which voters matter most to both campaigns. Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we'll find the answers. Protesters in Toronto last year denounced the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh leader, in British Columbia. Carlos Osorio/Reuters Canada expelled Indian diplomats Canada expelled India's high commissioner and five other diplomats yesterday, accusing the Indian government of orchestrating homicides and extortion in Canada to intimidate Sikh separatists and silence its critics living there. India reciprocated, expelling six Canadians, including the embassy's second-highest-ranking diplomat. The tit-for-tat actions escalated a bitter dispute that began last year with the assassination of a prominent Sikh cleric, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, British Columbia. The Canadian government accused India of being behind the killing. India says the allegations are politically motivated. MORE TOP NEWS Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via Shutterstock Space: NASA's first mission to Jupiter in over a decade lifted off, beginning a nearly six-year journey to explore an ocean moon's habitability. Nobel Prize: Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on explaining the wealth gaps between nations. War in Ukraine: Moscow's forces have been recapturing some territory taken in a Ukrainian incursion into Russia. Britain: Calls to nationalize the water industry have swept across England and Wales amid sewage spills and rising household bills. Germany: A court in Berlin found an 80-year-old former Stasi officer guilty of a murder that occurred in 1974 and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Russia: A Western plan to deprive the country of oil revenue is failing because of a shadow fleet of tankers that evade restrictions, a report found. Migrants: Under a plan that has attracted criticism, Italy sent its first boat carrying migrants to Albania, where their asylum claims will be assessed. Jordan: An excavation unearthed 12 human skeletons and a chamber of grave offerings near Petra's Treasury building, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Retail: The last full-size Kmart in the continental U.S. is about to close. SPORTS NEWS Soccer: Nigeria said its team would forfeit an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier after being stuck in a Libyan airport for 12 hours. Gambling: "I literally can't stop." Inside one man's dark descent from modern sports fan to online betting addict. Baseball: What to know about the auction of the ball from Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run. Football: The timeline of Tom Brady's bid to become part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. MORNING READ Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times Being a comedian during a war might seem a bit like being a clown at a funeral. But in Ukraine, even as the conflict with Russia grinds on, a new generation of standup comics is trying to make people laugh — and raise money for the war effort. Take a segment about videos by Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, by the comic Anton Tymoshenko. "Every day, there's a new one," he told a Kyiv audience. "And you don't watch them. Neither do I. Maybe he should just rerun old episodes." Lives lived: Lilly Ledbetter, a former tire plant worker whose lawsuit against her employer for sex discrimination helped pave the way for the 2009 Fair Pay Act, has died at 86. CONVERSATION STARTERS Dongyan Xu Voices at risk: The September murder of a Japanese boy in China has many Chinese people risking Beijing's scrutiny to speak out against what they see as state-led xenophobia. A taxing labor: The stars and director of the film "We Live in Time" explain how a birth scene in a gas station bathroom became an action sequence. A wild, subversive sound: An archival label in the U.S. was going to release a huge compilation of records from Soviet-era Ukraine. Then Russia invaded. ARTS AND IDEAS David B. Torch for The New York Times He signed over his art to investors. He wants it back. As the artist Bjarne Melgaard rose to fame, his bills also soared. A 2020 contract with two longtime investors was supposed to be a lifesaver, absolving him of nearly $16 million in debt. Now, he's suing to void it. Melgaard realized after signing that he had forfeited hundreds of paintings and thousands of prints, the rights to produce a series of sculptures and the ability to oppose sales of his own work. The value of this trove has been estimated at millions of dollars. A Norwegian court will begin hearing the case today. The future of Melgaard's career may hang on its decision. Read his story here. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. RECOMMENDATIONS Chris Simpson for The New York Times Cook: This 20-minute ginger-garlic shrimp with coconut milk will lure people into the kitchen. Eat: Broccoli really is as good for you as they say it is. (It may even have anticancer properties.) Travel: A cultural immersion vacation in Provence offers lessons on language and life — and pastries to die for. Style: Our chief fashion critic weighs in on leopard print's enduring appeal. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. And a correction: Yesterday's briefing mislabeled a story about Jannik Sinner. He is a star in tennis, of course, not Formula 1. See you tomorrow. — Natasha Reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Europe Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Europe Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018