World Briefing: October 29, 2024

Israel has passed two laws banning the UN's Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) from operating in Israel, and in occupied areas under its control, by large majorities. A number of countries, including the US, the UK and Germany, have expressed serious concern about the move. Ahead of the vote, the US State Department said the agency played a "critical" role in distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Almost all of the enclave's population of more than two million people is dependent on aid and services from Unrwa. Israel accuses Unrwa of being all but complicit with Hamas, saying that some of the agency's members were involved in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. - BBC

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group says it has chosen Naim Kassem to replace its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike. Kassem had been deputy to Hassan Nasrallah for over three decades, who was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike. He has served as the militant group’s acting leader since Nasrallah’s death. Hezbollah vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.” - Euronews

Supporters of Georgia's political opposition parties demonstrated outside their country's parliament building in Tbilisi to denounce official election results that they claim were rigged. The October 28 protest came two days after parliamentary elections in which the ruling Georgian Dream won enough votes to maintain control of government. Separately, the United States, Canada, and Sweden have voiced criticism following parliamentary elections in Georgia . Sweden announced it was ending any direct cooperation with Georgia's government, while Canada said it was reviewing its ties with the authorities in Tbilisi. - RFE/RL

Democrats stepped up their attacks on Donald Trump on Monday, a day after a comedian opening a rally for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” a comment that drew wide condemnation and highlighted the rising power of a key Latino group in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Vice President Kamala Harris described Trump’s rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden as “more vivid than usual” and said he “fans the fuel of hate.” In a rare move late Sunday, the Trump campaign distanced itself from the remarks on Puerto Rico made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. With just over a week before Election Day, the fallout underscores the importance of Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes and the last-minute efforts to court growing numbers of Hispanic voters, mostly from Puerto Rico, who have settled in cities west and north of Philadelphia. - AP

The Washington Post’s Trump-era slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” was the title of a simple and effective cartoon in that same paper Friday afternoon, hours after its billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, refused to allow its editorial board to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The cartoon, shown on the cover of todays’s World Briefing and by Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Ann Telnaes, shows streaks of dark paint that have been brushed to form no discernible shape. The absence of what would be considered a typical editorial cartoon follows the absence of the Post’s presidential endorsement--the first such instance in the past 36 years. “Democracy Dies in Darkness” first appeared on the storied paper‘s website about a month into Donald Trump’s presidency. Former Post executive editor Marty Baron alluded to it when he panned Bezos' decision as “cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty.” The lack of an endorsement, Baron also said, was an invitation for Trump to “further intimidate” the media. - Daily Beast

The Washington Post has been rocked by a tidal wave of cancellations from digital subscribers and a series of resignations from columnists, as the paper grapples with the fallout of owner Jeff Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president. More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters. Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon. - Axios

A heavy police response has stifled Halloween celebrations in Shanghai, in what many have viewed as an attempt by authorities to crack down on large public gatherings and freedom of expression. Witnesses have told the BBC they saw police dispersing crowds of costumed revellers on the streets of Shanghai, while photos of apparent arrests have spread on social media. Authorities have yet to comment. While there has been no official notice prohibiting Halloween celebrations, rumours of a possible crackdown began circulating online earlier this month. It comes a year after Halloween revellers in Shanghai went viral for donning costumes poking fun at the Chinese government and its policies. - BBC

Chinese grass roots government workers, who spent decades imposing strict birth control policies, are now calling up women in their neighbourhoods to urge them to get pregnant amid China’s demographic crisis. Tens of thousands Chinese women of childbearing age are being pursued through a vigorous campaign organised by vast district administrative networks. Grass-roots government workers have been mobilised to contact women in their neighbourhoods to urge them to get pregnant. The central government also hopes to learn why so many women are reluctant to have more children, and devise new policy options as a plummeting birth rate steers the country towards a demographic crisis. On October 17, China’s Population and Development Research Centre announced that it would conduct a nationwide survey in a bid to “obtain new data on views on marriage and fertility and key influencing factors”. - South China Morning Post

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