It's Wednesday, October 18th. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker,

your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Today, we'll start a program with an

update on the situation in Israel, and if you thought that it couldn't get any more complicated,

well, you'd be wrong. An explosion yesterday rocked the Gaza City Hospital, reportedly killing

hundreds of people, many of whom had taken shelter on the hospital grounds, believing it could be a

safe location. The Hamas run health ministry in Gaza blamed the Israelis, claiming the explosion

was an Israeli airstrike. Much of the international media ran with this claim immediately,

headlining that Israel bombed the hospital. Now, Israel has denied that it had any responsibility

for the explosion, instead blaming an errant misfired Palestinian rocket for the tragedy.

Regardless of who is responsible, the extensive loss of life is sure to further inflame the region,

and protests have started building in the West Bank and elsewhere. As conditions continue to

deteriorate in the Gaza Strip, King Abdullah of Jordan announces that his nation is drawing a

hard line on accepting Palestinian refugees. I'll explain why Jordan, Egypt, and other surrounding

nations are closing their doors to hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge.

A little later in the program, President Joe Biden heads to Israel in a bold wartime visit,

signaling robust support, but also advocating for humanitarian relief in Gaza. Biden now

was also scheduled to travel to Jordan for a diplomatic summit with Jordanian and Egyptian leaders,

as well as with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. However, that trip has now been cancelled in

the wake of the Gaza City Hospital bombing, as the Arab leaders called off the planned meeting.

Next, we shift our focus elsewhere, as Vladimir Putin makes a rare foreign visit to China,

and in a concerning move, Russia begins steps to withdraw from a key nuclear test band treaty.

Finally, in today's back of the brief segment, the U.S. and Venezuela, near a ground-breaking

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