| | | | | | | Hello. After a new night of Israeli "targeted raids" into Gaza and amid a seemingly evergrowing humanitarian crisis in the Strip, my colleague Frank Gardner helps us take a step back and look at the role played by Qatar in hostage talks. We also have updates on the US strikes in Syria and the manhunt that is still going on in the US state of Maine. Thanks, as ever, for reading. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Why Qatar is the centre of hostage diplomacy |  | | Both President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have thanked Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani after hostages were freed. Credit: Reuters |
| | Over the past two weeks, we've shared stories of grief and destruction in the war between Israel and Hamas. But there are also complex diplomatic conversations that can be hard to follow. This is why I want to highlight a piece from our security correspondent Frank Gardner. He wrote on the unique role Qatar is playing in the fate of the 229 hostages in the hands of Hamas, according to Israel's estimate. The Arab Gulf state is a major western ally in the region, but is also home to the political leadership of Hamas, allowing it to act like a middleman. But for all the diplomatic efforts, only four hostages have been released. Freeing a larger group of captives would require a pause in the airstrikes that started after Hamas's brutal 7 October attacks. Israel's leadership has shut the door on the idea. It is however under continuous pressure from families of hostages, for some of whom it might be too late. Hamas said yesterday that approximately 50 hostages have been killed as a result of Israel's strikes - a claim that is obviously impossible to verify at this stage. | | | | |
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| AT THE SCENE |  Gaza Strip | | Giving birth amid shelling and power cuts | | The UN estimates that there are about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza with 5,500 of them expected to give birth in the next 30 days. This is the story of one, who talked about her experience with my BBC Arabic colleague in London. | | | | On Friday 13 October, Jumana went into labour. She struggled to find someone to take her to the hospital. "Taxi drivers are afraid, and ambulances don't have time for a woman about to give birth," she explained.
She described the hours of labour as hard and terrifying. "There was intense shelling in a house next to the hospital, the sound was so loud that I thought the shelling had reached the hospital itself. Injured people kept arriving. I could hear screams from every direction." Jumana described her feeling of shock when hours later that evening, she gave birth to a baby girl, whom she decided to name Talia. "Her crying meant we were all still alive," she recalls. |
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| | | | World headlines | | • | Maine mass shooting: The manhunt for a US Army reservist suspected of murdering 18 people and injuring 13 others in a mass shooting in Maine has entered its second day, transforming the small city of Lewiston into a ghost town. | | • | War in Ukraine: Russia is executing soldiers who try to retreat from a bloody offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to the White House. | | • | Death of a leader: Former Chinese premier Li Keqiang has died of a heart attack aged 68. His death "means the loss of a prominent moderating voice within the senior levels of the Chinese Communist Party", Ian Chong, non-resident scholar at the Carnegie China think tank, told the BBC. | | • | Hurricane in Mexico: At least 27 people were killed by Hurricane Otis, which made landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast on Wednesday, officials say. | | • | The inescapable Taylor Swift released a new version of her album 1989 today. Here's a guide to the record that definitively turned her into a pop star. |
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| | | | | | Beyond the headlines | | Why Evergrande is still alive |  | | Evergrande owes more than $325bn (£269bn), more than Russia's entire national debt. Credit: Reuters |
| | Over the past two years, you might have seen dramatic headlines about Evergrande, as the Chinese property developer lurches from debt crisis to legal trouble. And you could be wondering: How has it survived? The answer, our Asia business correspondent Nick Marsh explains, lies in the tight control the Chinese government has on its economy, allowing the firm to live on in a zombie-like state. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | The road less travelled | | The back route to the Serengeti is made of extremes and contemplation. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | Here's a piece of brighter news coming from London's Great Ormond Street Hospital. Our medical editor Fergus Walsh attended an unusual kind of pizza party, gathering six sets of conjoined twins treated by the facility - they represent only one birth a year in the UK, on average. All but one have been surgically separated, but they still need medical attention. The day, however, was for smiles and pizza. Read their stories. |
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| | | | | | Essential List Newsletter | | The week’s best stories, handpicked by BBC editors, in your inbox every Friday. | | |
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– Jules |
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