WASHINGTON — US President Joseph R. Biden warned Iran to “be careful” on Wednesday and told Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States is sending more military assistance to help Israel fight Hamas militants.

Speaking to a group of Jewish community leaders, Mr. Biden for the first time connected the US deployment of a carrier fleet near to Israel to concerns Iran might seek to become involved, as Israel reels from an attack from Gaza by Hamas militants who killed more than 1,000 people in southern Israel.

“We moved the US carrier fleet to the eastern Mediterranean and we are sending more fighter jets to that region, and made it clear to the Iranians: Be careful,” he said.

US officials say they have not been able to establish a direct link between the Hamas attack but are searching to see if they can find one, since Hamas is supported by Tehran.

Mr. Biden also said that in his fourth phone call with Mr. Netanyahu in the five days since the Hamas attack took place on Saturday, he assured him that more military aid was on the way.

Mr. Biden and his team are grappling with how to gain the freedom of any potential American hostages held by Hamas. At least 22 US citizens were among the dead, the State Department confirmed, and at least 17 Americans are missing. The White House said the confirmed number of Americans who have died or are being held hostage could rise.

Many US lawmakers are eager to send Israel more military equipment but some are cool to funding Ukraine’s war to repel Russian invaders.

The White House has been considering a budget request tying money for these two conflicts together to increase the chances that the Ukraine assistance will be approved.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the parameters for an additional funding request to Congress had yet to be finalized.

In the near term, Washington can continue to support both Israel and Ukraine as it continues to fight Russia, but “we’re certainly running out of runway,” he said at a press briefing.

In emotional remarks a day earlier, Mr. Biden called the attack “an act of sheer evil,” and said that US military assistance was being sent to help Israel in its fight.

NBC News on Wednesday reported that the White House is preparing to seek supplemental funding from US lawmakers for those two countries, as well as for Taiwan and US border security. — Reuters

TOKYO — Most Japanese companies expect a slowdown in China’s economy to persist into 2025, with nearly two thirds of firms that operate there looking to shift some production elsewhere in search of sales in other markets, according to a Reuters monthly poll.

That cautious outlook comes even though recent data suggests that an economy weighed down by infrastructure project debt and a downturn in property values has bottomed out. China’s factory activity in September expanded for the first time in six months, with sales growth accelerating in August.

Of 502 major Japanese companies surveyed by Reuters, 52% said they expected the slowdown in China to continue into 2025, with 17% predicting weaker economic growth to persist until the end of 2024. Only 5% said they expected a rebound by the end of the first quarter next year.

“Cargo shipments are stagnant, and it’s difficult for cargo handlers to take measures to tackle that,” a representative from a transport company said, on condition the company was not identified.

More than two thirds of household wealth in China is tied up in the property market, and with youth unemployment rising, consumers and companies have been reluctant to spend.

Analysts polled separately by Reuters last month, predicted the World’s No. 2 economy will grow by 5% this year and by 4.5% next year.

China is Japan’s biggest trading partner. The value of that cross-border economic activity jumped 14% to 43.8 trillion yen ($294 billion) last year, according to the Japanese government. Japanese companies also operate from more than 31,000 locations in the country.

Some 45% of the firms that responded to the survey said the slowdown in China had affected their businesses. In addition to those companies shifting production out of China, 12% said they were curbing capital investment there.

In Japan, 86% of the companies said they want Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to boost the economy with a stimulus package worth more than 10 trillion yen, with nearly a fifth calling for at least 30 trillion yen of spending, including on measures to tackle price rises and to help companies raise wages.

“Priority should be given to creating an environment where wages can be increased over the medium to long term on the assumption that prices will continue to rise,” said a manager at a wholesaler.

The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research between Sept. 27 and Oct. 6, canvassed 502 big non-financial Japanese firms.

They were polled on condition of anonymity, allowing respondents to speak more freely. — Reuters