WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden said on Tuesday U.S. law enforcement agencies were taking steps to disrupt any domestic threat that may emerge after Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ weekend attack on Israel that left hundreds dead.

The FBI said earlier it was “closely monitoring unfolding events” but added it “does not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel.”

(Reporting by Steve Holland; writing by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Chris Reese)

By Maayan Lubell

KFAR AZA, Israel (Reuters) – A baby’s crushed crib lying outside a burnt-out home. Corpses strewn on streets. Body bags lined up on an outdoor basketball court. The stench of death everywhere.

Just a few days ago this was the sleepy, scenic kibbutz of Kfar Aza, an Israeli farming community of about 750 people, many of them families with young children. Now it’s become a charnel house after Hamas gunmen burst out of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and laid waste to the village.

“Mothers, fathers, babies, young families killed in their beds, in the protection room, in the dining room, in their garden,” Israeli Major General Itai Veruv said on Tuesday, the seasoned soldier visibly shaken as troops went door-to-door to collect the bodies of residents killed in their homes.

“It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield. It’s a massacre,” Veruv said. Some victims were decapitated, he added. “I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve served for 40 years.”

Kfar Aza, just 3 km from the Gaza Strip, was among the communities hit hardest by the Hamas assault on southern Israel, which Israeli officials say has killed at least 1,000 people, mostly civilians gunned down in their homes, on the streets or at a dance festival.

Retaliatory Israeli strikes have killed at least 830 Gazans and flattened whole districts, Palestinian officials say.

Kfar Aza attack survivor Avidor Schwartzman said he hid with his wife and one-year-old daughter in the safe room of their house for more than 20 hours before being rescued by Israeli soldiers and emerging to confront a scene of “pure hell”.

“There were bodies everywhere. Dead bodies everywhere,” the 38-year-old said. “We saw our little piece of paradise, our little piece of heaven, was totally burnt – burnt and with blood everywhere.”

GUNMEN BREACH KIBBUTZ FENCE

On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Forces took foreign press through the kibbutz, where ruins of burnt-out houses oversaw streets scattered with dead residents and militants, torched cars and piles of broken furniture and other wreckage.

There was no official death toll from the Kfar Aza kibbutz as of Tuesday evening, with Israeli soldiers still searching homes they suspect may be booby-trapped with explosives.

The military spokesperson at the site said at least dozens of residents had been killed in the attack. She added that it hadn’t yet pieced together the precise chain of events, with fighting having only completely ended late on Monday.

The Hamas gunmen rammed through the kibbutz’s fence, possibly using an earthmover, clearing the way for dozens of other gunmen to enter through the breach, she said.

Militants also arrived on motorcycles and a hang-glider, the spokesperson added. Veruv, the major general, put the total number of gunmen to enter the kibbutz at about 70.

Waves of the attackers, armed with Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, stormed the village, a reserve soldier told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Some of the Hamas militants’ bodies could still be seen lying on streets around the kibbutz, wearing black shirts, khaki trousers and army vests. One still had his hand on a pistol.

‘OUR WORST NIGHTMARES’

Schwartzman told Reuters he was woken at about 6.30 am on Saturday by the booming sounds of rockets and that he and his family moved to their safe room an hour later after receiving a kibbutz-wide text telling them it was dangerous to be outside.

“We heard shootings and we were basically barricaded in for 21 hours until the army rescued us,” his wife, Keren Flash, took up the account. “We kept hearing shootings and gunfire and bombs and alarms, and we just didn’t know what was happening. Our worst nightmares.”

Soldiers were still securing the streets of the kibbutz, once neatly lined with palm trees, banana plants and single-storey houses with verandas.

Outside one home, the body of a resident lay covered by a purple bed sheet with a bare foot protruding, as if only sleeping. A pillow lay nearby with other accoutrements from their everyday life.

Bursts of gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance. Jets could be heard above and smoke could be seen rising from Gaza. Sirens warned of incoming rockets intercepted overhead.

One soldier shouted: “Tell the world what you saw here.”

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Additional reporting by Janis Laizans and Emily Rose; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Pravin Char)

By Napat Wesshasartar and Chayut Setboonsarng

BAAN NONG SAENG, Thailand (Reuters) – When 26-year-old Natthaporn Onkaew headed for Israel two years ago to join thousands of fellow Thai migrants and take a job as a farm worker, his father warned him not to go.

“I asked him: ‘Are you sure that you want to go to this dangerous country where there are conflicts all the time?’ But he said it was fine,” Thawatchai Onkaew said at the small family home in the sleepy northeastern village of Baan Nong Saeng.

Now his words have come hauntingly true: Natthaporn is among 11 Thais and scores of other hostages taken by Hamas militants in their unprecedented assault on Israel at the weekend.

His parents have not been able to contact him since Friday and recognised him in a photo on social media of hostages sitting with hands seemingly tied behind their backs.

“He was going to play soccer with his friend. Then he hung up the phone,” his mother Thongkoon Onkaew said of their last phone call, her voice trembling as she sat with relatives and neighbours on plastic chairs around a table.

“I want them to release my son … I’m speechless. It’s completely dark,” she said. “Help the hostages as soon as possible. This is the only thing I want to tell the (Thai) government.”

FAMILY BREADWINNER

Natthaporn is the family’s sole breadwinner, sending remittances of 30,000-40,000 baht ($812-$1,083) each month to his family in the village in Nakhon Phanom province surrounded by sugarcane plantations and rice fields.

The money covers school fees for his 12-year-old sister.

He is one of 30,000 Thais working in Israel, mainly in the agricultural sector. Thousands are now looking to return.

Thailand’s government said it did not have information on the hostages’ conditions, but is in touch with Israeli authorities and hopes Hamas will not harm them.

Among numerous nations with citizens caught up in the conflagration, 18 Thais have also been killed and nine injured.

Thailand and the Philippines are among the largest sources of migrant workers for Israel, the Filipinos mainly in healthcare.

($1 = 36.9200 baht)

(Reporting by Napat Wesshasartar, Thomas Suen and Chayut Setboonsarng, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

(Reuters) – Kerrisdale Capital said on Tuesday it had taken a short position on Joby Aviation over profitability concerns, sending the electric aircraft maker’s shares down nearly 5%.

“We believe (Joby) is years away from generating operating revenue,” the fund said.

California-based Joby said Kerrisdale has a “vested interest” in lowering its share price.

Joby plans to operate like a rideshare app, unlike other electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) peers that intend to sell their aircraft to customers including airlines and logistics firms.

Kerrisdale warned of higher operating costs as the company’s electric aircraft are likely to offer lower range and power than traditional helicopters.

The U.S. aviation regulator in June gave Joby, which is backed by investors such as Delta Air Lines, Toyota Motor and Intel Corp, the nod to flight-test its electric air taxi.

In its most recent quarter, the company posted a bigger-than-expected loss, citing expenses related to certification and early manufacturing operations.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Devika Syamnath)

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential contenders are scheduled to face off in a third primary debate on Nov. 8.

Here are some facts about the forum:

WHERE IS IT?

The third debate will take place in Miami, though the Republican National Committee has yet to specify the venue or exact time. Florida is the home of former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who are running first and second in national opinion polls, respectively.

Florida was until recently a battleground between Republicans and Democrats, but the state now leans conservative. The state hosts a Republican primary contest in March, which has played a crucial role in previous primary elections, though it is considerably less important than contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which are slated for January and February.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

To qualify for the debate, a candidate will need to receive at least 4% in two national polls or 4% in one national poll as well as 4% in a poll in at least two “early states.” Those early states are Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, all of which are among the first to hold nominating contests. The Republican National Committee has laid out several requirements for surveys to count toward this requirement, including that they must take place after Sept. 1.

Candidates will also be required to have at least 70,000 unique donors, including at least 200 donors from 20 or more states or territories. They also must sign a pledge which requires participants to support the eventual Republican nominee.

WILL TRUMP BE THERE?

Trump holds a 37-percentage point lead over DeSantis, his closest challenger, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, limiting the debate’s significance if he is not there.

Trump opted out of the first two Republican debates, saying it would be “stupid” to expose himself to attacks from opponents after he previously implied he would not participate in any of the debates. While the possibility that Trump changes his mind cannot be ruled out, his campaign advisers on Oct. 2 called for the RNC to cancel the upcoming Miami debate.

WHICH OTHER CANDIDATES WILL BE THERE?

DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy appear to have the support needed to make the debate stage. Former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina also appear to have a solid shot of being there, according to recent polls.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum faces longer odds. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who did not qualify for the second debate in California, is unlikely to be there, unless his fortunes change.

HOW MUCH WILL THE DEBATE MATTER?

The November debate could make a difference for some candidates, but is unlikely to change the fundamental dynamics of the race. After the first presidential debate in Wisconsin, for instance, Haley received a measurable polling boost and renewed interest from donors thanks to a well-received performance. Still, that debate did not dent Trump’s massive lead.

With the third debate just over two months before the first primary contest in Iowa in January, the candidates will be under intense pressure to begin chipping away at Trump’s lead.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Nathan Layne, editing by Ross Colvin, Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis)

(Reuters) – Nine Republican candidates have qualified for the party’s debates so far as they seek the nomination to take on Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden, who is running for reelection in the November 2024 presidential contest.

Here is a list of the Republican Party’s leading candidates.

DONALD TRUMP

Trump, 77, has embraced his indictments in four separate state or federal criminal cases – unprecedented for a former American president – which have boosted his popularity among Republicans and helped make him the frontrunner in his party’s race for the presidential nomination.

Trump has called the indictments part of a politically motivated witch hunt to thwart his pursuit of a second four-year term, an assertion that the Justice Department has denied. In a sign of his extraordinary hold on his party, just two rivals at the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 23 said they would not support him as the nominee if he were convicted.

Trump has vowed to enact tougher immigration restrictions and harsher curbs on trade with China, and to carry out political reprisals against those he perceives to have wronged him. He has a firm grip on his party’s right wing, but may struggle to get moderates and independents to support him in a general election should he win the Republican nomination.

RON DESANTIS

After a glitch-filled campaign launch in May on Twitter, now called X, DeSantis has positioned himself to the right of Trump on a number of key social issues such as abortion. But his well-funded campaign has struggled to gain traction, and his top donor has said he won’t give the Florida governor more money unless DeSantis adopts a more moderate approach.

DeSantis, 45, is Trump’s top rival, but remains nearly 40 percentage points behind the former president in opinion polls. He has fired staff and rebooted his campaign several times since May, but those steps have done little to boost his candidacy. DeSantis’ campaign says it is focused on stopping Trump in Iowa, where the party will hold its first nominating contest in January.

MIKE PENCE

Trump’s vice president has broken with his former boss over Trump supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as Pence was inside, presiding over Congress’s certification of Biden’s 2020 victory. Pence, 64, says, “history will hold Trump accountable” for his role in the attack.

A staunch conservative, the former Indiana governor is appealing directly to the evangelical Christian community. His campaign, however, has struggled to raise money and he is stuck in the low single digits in opinion polls.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY

A former biotechnology investor and executive, Ramaswamy, 38, started a company in 2022 to pressure firms to abandon environmental, social, and corporate governance initiatives. The political outsider has stoked grassroots chatter as a potential alternative to Trump. Ramaswamy is a fervent supporter of the former president, and says that if he won the White House, he would pardon Trump.

NIKKI HALEY

A former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Haley, 51, has emphasized her relative youth compared to Biden and Trump, as well as her background as the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Haley has gained a reputation in the Republican Party as a solid conservative who has the ability to address issues of gender and race in a more credible fashion than many of her peers. She has also pitched herself as a stalwart defender of American interests abroad. She has low single-digit support among Republicans, according to opinion polls.

TIM SCOTT

The only Black Republican U.S. senator has low name recognition outside his home state of South Carolina, but his optimism and focus on unifying his divided party have helped him draw a contrast with a more aggressive approach from Trump and DeSantis. Scott’s supporters, however, acknowledge that while his sunny demeanor is a selling point, it may not be enough to win. Scott, 58, attracted 2% support among Republicans, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

ASA HUTCHINSON

The former Arkansas governor launched his bid for the White House in April with a call for Trump to step aside to deal with the former president’s first indictment. Hutchinson, 72, has touted his experience leading his deeply conservative state as proof he can deliver on policies Republican voters care about, citing tax cuts and job creation initiatives.

Still, his name recognition remains limited outside Arkansas, and he earned no support among Republicans polled by Reuters/Ipsos. Hutchinson qualified for the first Republican debate, but not the second one.

CHRIS CHRISTIE

Christie, 61, advised Trump’s White House campaign, but became a vocal critic of the former president after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. The former New Jersey governor and federal prosecutor stepped up his verbal attacks as Trump faced a growing number of criminal charges.

Christie has received about 2% support among Republicans in Reuters/Ipsos polls.

DOUG BURGUM

Burgum, 67, is serving his second four-year term as North Dakota’s governor after selling his software business to Microsoft in 2001. A proponent of low taxes and fewer regulations, he has sought to portray himself as a traditional conservative with a focus on the economy and national security. One of the least-known contenders, he gets close to no support in polls.

OTHER CANDIDATES

Several other Republicans are also vying for the nomination, including right-wing radio host Larry Elder, though neither has gained enough traction so far to qualify for the debates.

(Compiled by the Washington newsroom; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Ashitha Shivaprasad

(Reuters) – Gold prices eased on Tuesday after rising nearly 2% in the previous session as investors cautiously turned back to riskier assets and looked forward to further cues on the U.S. central bank’s policy stance.

Spot gold was down 0.1% at 1,858.64 per ounce as of 1:44 p.m. ET (1744 GMT), after rising to a more than one week high earlier in the session.

U.S. gold futures settled 0.6% higher at $1,875.30 an ounce.

Spot gold rose 1.6% on Monday, its biggest one-day jump in five months, as military clashes between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas boosted demand for safe-haven investments.

Profit-taking and increased investor appetite for risk pressured prices, although the conflict between Israel and Hamas limited gold’s losses, said Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities. Gold is often a safe haven for investors during times of global instability.

Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher, though caution prevailed amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Markets focused on the Federal Reserve’s September monetary policy meeting minutes to be published on Wednesday and U.S. Consumer Prices Index (CPI) data due on Thursday.

“If the CPI report comes hotter than expected, especially the core number, it will be negative for gold as it will indicate that the Fed will have to keep rates higher for longer, Melek added.

As bullion yields no interest, it tends to lose its attraction when interest rates rise.

Top ranking Fed officials indicated on Monday that rising yields on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds could steer the Fed away from further increases in its short-term policy rate.

The next level of potential resistance (for gold) is seen around $1,885, followed by $1,900, Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index, wrote in a note.

Spot silver fell 0.6% to $21.75 per ounce, platinum lost 0.7% to $879.71 and palladium gained 2.5% to $1,168.66.

(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Rod Nickel and Shilpi Majumdar)

By Jarrett Renshaw and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration is expected to announce on Friday the winners of $7 billion in federal grants to build out regional hydrogen hubs, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The announcement caps months of intense political jockeying among states from California to Pennsylvania for their share of the $7 billion in federal dollars to set the U.S. on a path to produce 50 million metric tons of clean hydrogen fuel by 2050. 

The competitive process granted the White House unusual power to play kingmaker and reward allies in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan that could play a major role in whether President Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024.

The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill allocated up to $7 billion to launch the initiative, called the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, which will help fund six to 10 regional clean hydrogen hubs across the United States.

The hydrogen is expected to replace fossil fuels like natural gas and coal to power factories and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors like cement.

In 2022, 79 applicants sent letters of interest to the Energy Department for the hub grants, and by January, the DOE had selected 33 teams to move forward. In many cases, states joined together to make joint applications.

The hubs have many private and public sector partners and the federal grants are expected to unleash a wave of new state and private sector investment.

The administration has also earmarked billions of dollars more in subsidies for hydrogen producers in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Biden is scheduled to travel to Philadelphia on Friday to discuss how his administration is building union jobs and a clean energy future.

The Philadelphia region is one of the locations vying for a share of the $7 billion in grants. The White House would not say whether Biden will announce the awards at the Philadelphia event.

The Department of Energy declined to comment on when the grants would be announced.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Valerie Volcovici; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Deepa Babington)

(Adds dropped word “Emeritus” to Summers title, paragraph 10)

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) – Prominent Harvard University alumni on Monday denounced a pro-Palestinian statement from students that blamed Israel for violence engulfing the region and urged the university to take action against the signatories.

The Islamist militant Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, attacked Israel on Saturday in the worst breach of the country’s defenses since Arab armies waged war in 1973. Israel has responded with air strikes on Gaza.

Hundreds of people in Israel and Gaza have been killed.

A coalition of 34 Harvard students organizations said they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” following decades of occupation, adding that “the apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”

The organizations signing the letter included Muslim and Palestinian support groups plus others named for a variety of backgrounds including the Harvard Jews for Liberation and the African American Resistance Organization.

Reuters could not verify how many students supported the letter.

Harvard President Claudine Gay and senior leadership including 15 deans issued a statement on Monday that said they were “heartbroken by the death and destruction unleashed by the attack by Hamas that targeted citizens in Israel this weekend.”

But the statement avoided direct references to the student letter or the reaction to it.

Harvard is the most influential university in U.S. politics, having produced eight former presidents and four of the nine current Supreme Court Justices.

Harvard President Emeritus Lawrence Summers, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary under Democratic President Bill Clinton and former university president, was one of several Harvard graduates to criticize the current Harvard leadership for failing to respond.

“The silence from Harvard’s leadership … has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” Summers wrote on social media platform X. “I am sickened.”

While universities traditionally have been a bastion of free speech and radical ideas, the student letter struck a chord within the political establishment.

Elise Stefanik, a Republican U.S. Representative from New York and a Harvard graduate, called the statement “abhorrent and heinous” for excusing the “slaughter of innocent women and children.”

Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Harvard Law School graduate, wrote on X: “What the hell is wrong with Harvard?”

(This story has been corrected to add dropped word ‘Emeritus’ to Summers title in paragraph 10)

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jamie Freed)

By Lisa Baertlein and Priyamvada C

(Reuters) – This holiday season, U.S. retailers are importing like it is 2019.

After a spending spree on goods that began during early COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, U.S. consumer patterns are normalizing. U.S. ocean container import growth over the first nine months of this year, which is dominated by retailers, was within 2.5% of the same period in 2019, Descartes Systems Group said in a report on Tuesday.

The import results – viewed as a demand proxy for major retailers like Walmart and Target – are in line with data showing consumer spending has held up better than expected as prices for grocery staples like chicken soar, gas prices rise and more costly car loans and mortgages eat into disposable spending.

Deloitte forecast holiday sales growth of 3.5% to 4.6% for the November to January period this year, the slowest pace since 2018.

“The rate of (spending) growth we’ve seen the past couple of years has slowed and retailers are working to strike the right balance of supply and demand,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president for supply chain for the National Retail Federation (NRF).

That balancing effort could help explain why September import volume was up 8% from 2019, the biggest divergence so far this year. Last month’s volume was also up 0.3% from August, breaking a six-year trend of month-on-month declines “consistent with importers winding down shipment volumes for remainder of the year,” Descartes said in its global shipping report.

Analysts said the September result could indicate retailers are importing based on signals from consumers rather than rushing in goods and backup supplies well before needed to avoid empty shelves, a strategy that backfired in mid-2022. Then, retailers were stuck with too much inventory after pandemic restrictions lifted and shoppers started shifting spending back to restaurants, travel and concerts.

Susquehanna analyst Bascome Majors analyzed about 20 years of data from Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s, and found the four highest-volume publicly traded importers of goods via ocean container ships in the U.S. were returning to “just-in-time” inventory strategies.

Target CEO Brian Cornell in August said the company had cleared a significant amount of unsold inventory from the unexpected demand shift and the retailer would “be ready when we see demand changing as we enter the holiday season.”

Descartes Executive Vice President Chris Jones added: “The consumer seems to be pretty fickle these days.”

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Priyamvada C in Bengaluru; additional reporting from Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)