Russia's election weekend begins with Ukraine missile attack

And Israel keeps truce hopes alive

Sign up for Reuters newsletters Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor Welcome to the Weekend Briefing, where we offer the state of play in the Middle East, Europe and beyond. I especially recommend today's World News podcast, in which my colleague Carmel Crimmins reports from Northern Ireland ahead of St. Patrick's Day on the Irish unity debate. There is plenty of music. People vote in Vidnoye near Moscow. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov A belligerent start to Russia's election weekend Threats: Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of working to disrupt Russia's presidential election by shelling Russian territory and trying to pierce the border. Putin's opponents are promoting a protest plan. A woman poured green dye into ballot boxes, and someone threw a Molotov cocktail at a polling station in Putin's hometown. Russia's election chief said "scumbags" who vandalize ballot boxes face jail terms. Master of all he surveys: There is only one real candidate and one winner, and I hardly need to tell you who he is. Still, the world is watching to see what might go off script before voting ends on Sunday evening, and we will bring you live coverage on our homepage. Sponsored Israel says it will attend new Gaza truce talks Talking: Israel will send a delegation to Qatar despite rejecting a counteroffer from Hamas. The rejection was far milder than the way they dismissed the previous Hamas offering. A ship arrived off the Gaza coast, carrying food for hungry residents. Iranian sources made it clear that Tehran really doesn't want to get involved if Hezbollah-Israel fighting intensifies. And the US sanctioned three settlers and two Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank. Spending: The Knesset approved a budget that was retooled to fund the war while still allocating money to all the usual places, including religious institutions. The money will come from higher taxes on tobacco products and bank profits and by widening the deficit. Opposition lawmakers are not pleased. Hamas too is miffed after the Palestinian Authority chose a new prime minister without consulting them. Fani Willis: Still in it Conditions: The judge overseeing Donald Trump's trial on charges of trying to overturn his election defeat in Georgia said the Fulton County district attorney can stay on the case, minus the deputy with whom she maintained a personal relationship. Another judge denied Trump's motion to dismiss his classified-documents case, and the former president's hush-money trial will be delayed. Numbers: Eleven percent of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they would vote for neither Trump nor Biden in the 2024 presidential election, while 5 percent said they would not vote at all. What do we think? Is this a rebuke to the mainstream or an opportunity for major persuasion? TikTok prepares for a long walk off a short-form pier Minding the money: TikTok advertisers are making plans to leave the video platform if it is banned in the US. A bill to force ByteDance to sell TikTok passed the House, and President Biden urged the Senate to approve it. But wait! Such a move could hurt his reelection campaign. Expensive words: In other tech news, Apple will pay nearly half a billion dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused CEO Tim Cook of defrauding shareholders by concealing falling demand for iPhones in China. Cook told investors in November 2018 that Apple did not face sales pressure in China. Days later, Apple told suppliers to curb production, and in January, it cut its quarterly revenue forecast because of US-China trade tensions. Before I forget…   The Church of England won't adopt firm criteria on whether to baptize asylum seekers because it was impossible to see into someone's heart and tell whether they were converting for faith or expediency.   Portugal's rightist Democratic Alliance plans to spend its way out of having to make deals with the far-right Chega party by proposing tax cuts and wage rises. Even if Portugal isn't your thing, I recommend this story as a primer on political intrigue. Related: What role do the Azores islands play in all this?   BMW apologized to Chinese drivers after the country's annual consumer-day TV show singled out the 530Li model's transmission shaft for producing "disturbing" noises. BMW caught heat at last year's Shanghai auto show over claims that its booth favored foreign visitors at an ice-cream giveaway.   The Olympic committees of Australia, Brazil, Canada and Norway want air conditioning for their athletes during the Paris Games, prompting the city's mayor to insist that their residences are designed to be cool without it, and to "trust the science." The Germans are siding with France on this one.   A study on polyglots' brains shows that their cerebral-cortex activity increases when they listen to the languages in which they have the most proficiency, but for some subjects, activity falls when listening to their native languages. Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Weekend Briefing is sent once a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this newsletter? 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