Hello! You're listening to the free edition of the World in Brief from the Economist.

As a reminder, if you subscribe to the Economist, you'll get access to a deeper look at the day ahead,

updated three times a day. If you're already an Economist subscriber, visit economist.com slash

espresso, or visit our espresso app to start listening. Here's today's free edition.

This is The World in Brief from the Economist.

Our top stories.

President Joe Biden denounced Hamas' attack on Israel, the bloodiest since those by

Egypt and Syria 50 years ago as, quote, evil. He also confirmed that American citizens are

among the people taken hostage by the group, which he likened to Islamic State, and said that

14 Americans were killed. Israel said it had hit 200 targets in Gaza overnight and recovered

the bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters in its territory. Hamas warned that it would start executing

Israeli hostages if Israel continued to bomb civilian houses in Gaza without warning.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Volkerturk, condemned Israel's blockade of Gaza, which has

cut the enclave off from supplies of food, electricity, and fuel. Mr. Turk said that a, quote,

siege, endangering civilian lives, was prohibited by international humanitarian law,

as were the abductions by Hamas of hostages from Israel. Nearly 200,000 people or a tenth of the

population of Gaza have fled their homes. George Santos, the congressman from New York,

notorious for his falsehoods, was indicted on 10 additional counts. He is accused of lying to

the Federal Election Commission, a regulatory agency, about how much money his campaign raised,

and unlawfully charging donor's credit cards. He did not immediately comment on those charges.

He has pleaded not guilty to earlier ones, including wire fraud.

Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, directed his employees to steal customer

...