Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to this weekend's edition of the briefing. We have a broad selection of intriguing stories, as well as a new newsletter to offer on the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It shows up once a week, just like I do, and is a highly attractive read. Sign up today.

A Houthi policeman takes part in a protest against U.S.-led strikes on Houthi targets. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The hands behind the Houthi attacks

On the ground: Commanders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah group are directing and overseeing Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping from Yemen, sources told Reuters. Tehran has provided drones and a variety of missiles, as well as data and intelligence support on ships. A Houthi spokesperson denied Iranian involvement. A Hezbollah spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
In Gaza: Israel pounded targets across the strip while its planes dropped leaflets on Rafah urging Palestinians to help locate hostages held by Hamas, residents said. A former Israeli military chief said a lightning raid to free hostages from Hamas is unlikely to succeed, and that the fate of the hostages should take priority over other war aims.

Trump steps up attacks on Haley

Weekend in New Hampshire: Donald Trump and his allies are bashing rival Nikki Haley before Tuesday's primary. It's a sign that his campaign to retake the White House sees her as a threat. In this week's Et tu Brute files, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott agreed to endorse the former president over Haley, who appointed him to the chamber when she was governor.
Not his type: Trump renewed his request for a mistrial in E. Jean Carroll's defamation case, citing the writer's destruction of emailed death threats she said she received after accusing him of rape. Carroll is seeking at least $10 million over two statements that Trump made as president in June 2019.

China's watching you

Every move you make: China's growing presence in the Pacific should not alarm Australia. Xiao Qian's comments come after Nauru said it would form diplomatic relations with China at Taiwan's expense. China's premier visited Dublin, saying there was more room to develop economic and trade cooperation. A new mega-port in Peru gives China direct access to the region's resources, and the leader of Georgia's ruling party traveled to Beijing to strengthen ties.
Every claim you stake: Taiwan's three remaining Pacific Island allies pledged support following the island's election of a president whose party opposes returning to the Beijing fold. Here is a list of the 12 countries still maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.

The check is not yet in the mail

A serious bug: Fujitsu, the IT group at the heart of Britain's Post Office scandal, has a duty to compensate its victims, its European head said. Hundreds of workers were wrongly convicted between 1999 and 2015 for fraud, theft and false accounting, in what Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called one of the country's biggest miscarriages of justice. Bugs caused the software to incorrectly show money missing from accounts.
Sunak's other problem: The PM called on the House of Lords to pass his plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, a day after he survived a threatened rebellion over the legislation. Conservatives' disarray over the plan and low public support pose a danger to Sunak and his party before elections later this year.

Before I forget…

A Russian woman accused of assassinating a pro-war blogger told a court she thought the package she handed to him in a St. Petersburg cafe contained a listening device, not a bomb.

Heard in Davos: Here's what we learned from the World Economic Forum's meeting, where the world's elite took the 5,000-foot view on the problems of the world.

On our World News podcast, Kristina Cooke reports on the migrants who took Gov. Abbott's bus trips from Texas to northerly Democrat-led cities, and how they're trying to make new homes there.

The U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped the fight over transgender student bathroom access.

The son of Somalia's president will pay a $900 fine after he killed a motorcycle courier in Istanbul while driving a car carrying diplomatic plates.

Dutch lawmakers will vote next week on a first step toward requiring King Willem-Alexander and his family to pay income tax.

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