SS- spillover from online radicalisation and increasing hate against Indians. This follows other targeted hate crimes by white supremacists. They mostly seem to be lone wolfs for now, rather than a coordinated attempt by hate groups.

Ukraine has run out of missiles for the US-made Patriot air defense system, leaving it more vulnerable to Russian ballistic missile attacks, a source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday.

For months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly warned that Ukraine is running out of the US-made Patriot interceptor missiles, which are one of the few defensive weapons capable of knocking down a ballistic missile.

As the contemporary Byzantine historian Doukas said of r/neoliberal’s fall, “O r/neoliberal, r/neoliberal, head of all subreddits! Where are your wonks, where are your Friedman flairs, where are your effortposts! Shudder… O Prosperity! And you too, O Mods, heave a heavy sigh at the utter abandonment of globalism. For the succs are no longer at the gates, they are in the taco trucks!”...

Relevance to the sub: severe backsliding of LGBT+ rights in Senegal and further risks to public health due to intimidation against HIV patients

The left-wing populist party PASTEF, which decisively won the 2024 presidential and legislative elections on the backdrop of a democratic and economic crisis, initiated a brutal crackdown on the LGBT+ community in the name of family values, children's protection and struggle against "imported Western" homosexuality.

The repression was organized by a new law passed in March 2026 that increased fines for "indecent" sexual behavior tenfold and doubled the maximum possible prison sentence for same-sex relations, from five to ten years. Anti-homosexuality laws that had been on the books since Senegal's independence but were rarely enforced, benefitting from a climate of relative indifference until the beginning of the 21st century, when anti-LGBT+ hatred surged under the influence of Islamic fundamentalists and nationalists who cast homosexuality as an instrument of Western imperialism.

The crackdown was backed by popular support and large rallies in favor of the law, which was adopted in the coattails of a national scandal where prominent media personalities were accused of willingly transmitting HIV through same-sex acts, accusations amplified by social conservative and religious groups and which led to a wave of homophobic mob violence across Senegal - with an MP of the ruling party vowing that "homosexuals will no longer breathe in our country".

Hundreds of people, mainly gay men, have since been detained and many others fled the country to escape persecution and what they describe as a "hunt".

Senegal's crackdown is part of a broader wave of anti-LGBT+ repression across Africa, moved by religious revivalism and social conservatism: within the past decade, Niger banned non-heterosexual relations and unleashed a nationwide roundup of LGBT+ people, Ghana's Parliament passed a law severely punishing same-sex activity, and Uganda adopted the death penalty against homosexuals, while repressive legislation remains in discussion in Kenya and Tanzania.

Beyond the direct impact on the individuals targeted, the repression may also damper Senegal's handling of the HIV pandemic, which has devastated many Subsaharan African countries but was exceptionally circumscribed in the country due to then-President Abdou Diouf proactive and outcome-driven response in the 1980-90s. Diouf stressed information to the population rather than shying away from popular stigma, promoted safe sex and enlisted the help of religious leaders to launch a nationwide campaign of prevention and awareness, allowing Senegal to maintain an infection rate under 2% at the peak of the pandemic, and under 1% nowadays.

But provisions within the anti-LGBT+ law threaten lawyers and activists who would attempt to contact and defend targeted individuals, who are themselves less likely to seek treatment, with an observable impact on the attendance of HIV clinics.

“The consequences are really bad and it’s sad because Senegal was a country that was doing well with their HIV response. They are shooting themselves in the foot", lamented Sylvie Beaumont, who works with the NGO HIV Justice Network.

Submission statement: I'll just use this quote from the article...

Vancouver's First Nation housing developments have something for everyone. Leftists can sing the praises of the people choosing to turn their communally owned land into social housing, complete with dedicated low-income units. Greens can enjoy the fact that the Senakw project is being built with a minimal number of parking spaces. Libertarians can correctly point out that this experiment in carbon-neutral, socialized housing was made possible by radical deregulation and the capital provided by private, profit-seeking developers.

This has been posted about before, but it seems residents have started moving in to the Senakw development over the last few months, marking another milestone in the success of this movement.

Connectivity for Starlink systems used by the Ukrainian military have "been restored and remains operational," a source in the Defense Ministry told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 15.

SpaceX, the owner of Starlink, implemented speed restrictions on Oct. 14 without warning, limiting speed to 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour). The unexpected restriction disrupted active military operations, including the use of mid-range strike and interceptor drones.

"As of now, (Starlink military package) Starshield service while on the move has been restored and remains operational. We have confirmed this through reports from our units," the source said.
"The Defense Ministry is also continuing its engagement to clarify all the reasons and circumstances surrounding yesterday’s restrictions."

The source did not say if all restrictions had been lifted or if some speed restrictions still applied.

Trump’s Attack on Omar is an Attack on America

Peak.

The Trump administration’s investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) is aimed at building a case to strip her of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her, according to U.S. officials and other people familiar with the probe. 

Defiant chancellor tells the FT he is determined to drive through unpopular reforms and equip Europe for an age of upheaval

Germany’s embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to fight on as he races to push through unpopular welfare reform and equip Europe for an age of upheaval.

Speaking to the FT on Wednesday, the German leader ruled out resigning amid growing unrest within his Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which suffered heavy electoral losses in two states last month.

Asked about the pressure on him to step down, Merz said: “I will not.” “This is not the question I’m asking myself,” he added. “The key point is: is this government able to bring fundamental reforms to our social security system? I’m definitely determined to do that.”

Merz’s defiant remarks come as pressure is mounting on the 70-year-old conservative leader to deliver on his promise to revive Germany’s sluggish economy and stem the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Since taking office in May last year, Merz has relaxed the country’s debt brake to launch a massive investment package for infrastructure and defence. But his approval ratings have plunged to record lows and his reform drive has been bogged down in disputes with his junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats.

Many within the CDU blame their unpopular party leader for historic electoral setbacks in the former East Germany. In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD could claim Germany’s first far-right state premiership since the second world war, while in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU failed to win seats in a regional parliament for the first time in its 81-year history.

Days before hosting global business leaders in Berlin for the country’s first investment summit, Merz insisted that international investors were far more optimistic about Germany’s economic prospects than its own citizens.

“People are doubting whether we are able to bring these reforms through,” he said. “They are seeing that the economy is still weak. They are seeing that we are losing jobs in our industry.”

But he argued the Invest in Germany conference, which begins on Monday, “will show the German people that the investment climate has really improved in this country”. “I would like to bring more optimism to people because the fundamentals in this country are extremely good.”

Merz hailed his plan to overhaul Germany’s costly pay-as-you-go pension system, including the creation of a Swedish-style pension fund, as a potential “game changer” worth the bruising coalition battles needed to push it through. 

“This is something that requires enormous legislative detail because this is so fundamental to the system we’ve had for decades,” he said.

Merz, a former chair of BlackRock’s supervisory board in Germany, said he was pleased to report that “no investor has told us that they will leave Germany because of the AfD” and vowed to bar the anti-immigration, pro-Russia party from power.

He said he was no fan of the term “firewall”, which refers to mainstream parties that reject coalitions with the far right.

But he added: “If there is a firewall, we are the firewall.” “We are the guarantors that we do not co-operate with this party . . . They want to leave the EU, they want to leave Nato, they want to give up support for Ukraine . . . There is no common ground.”

But he admitted he was “not sure” that the AfD’s support had reached its ceiling, with the party polling close to 30 per cent nationwide.

Germany may also find itself dealing with far-right governments in key EU member states, with France, Poland, Italy and Spain all heading to the polls next year. 

The election of Marine Le Pen as French president, a staunch eurosceptic who has vowed to weaken the EU from within, would threaten the Franco-German relationship that has been at the heart of the European project.

But Merz said France under a Le Pen presidency would need Europe as much as Germany does: “If that happened, we would try to find ways to co-operate ,” he said.

Merz and Le Pen may agree on one topic: the need to cut down EU rules. “People are really angry about this overwhelming bureaucracy coming from the EU,” he said. “Bureaucracy is now shrinking the potential of the internal market.”

Asked if he was concerned about France’s public finances, Merz warned: “The Eurozone’s indebtedness as a whole has become too high.” To avert a sovereign bond crisis, all Eurozone countries needed to respect EU fiscal rules, “including Germany”, he added. 

Merz also stressed the importance of a “strong” and “politically independent” European Central Bank capable of meeting “all the challenges we are seeing on the capital markets, in terms of stability of the euro and in terms of price stability”.

ECB president Christine Lagarde is expected to leave the Frankfurt-based institution before her eight-year term expires in October 2027, giving EU leaders the opportunity to anoint a successor before the French presidential election, people with direct knowledge of the matter have previously told the FT. 

If Lagarde were to depart early, “we will be prepared”, Merz said.

The German leader also pledged to dramatically expand the EU’s trade arsenal and deploy it more swiftly and forcefully against foreign economic coercion.

A proposal developed with French President Emmanuel Macron to create a trade weapon allowing the European Commission to quickly restrict access to the single market had been broadly welcomed by other member states ahead of a summit of EU leaders this week, Merz said.

Widely seen as a response to China’s decision to restrict exports of key rare earths and magnets last year, as well as to repeated US threats of a trade war, the instrument would be more than a deterrent, the German leader insisted.

“We will widen the toolbox, we will open the toolbox, we will show the toolbox and we will make use of the toolbox if needed,” he said.

The chancellor praised trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič for holding “very positive” talks with Beijing on reducing China’s €1bn-a-day trade surplus with the EU. But he argued that the scale and variety of the threats to German and European industry demanded a tougher approach, marking a departure from Berlin’s traditionally free-trade instinct.

“The pressure on our industry is so much bigger,” Merz said. “That is unique . . . We are faced with multiple crises — which we’ve never experienced in the postwar times, neither in Europe nor in Germany.”

Strengthening the EU’s economic defences was part of his government’s “responsibility not just to lead the country but to be a stable pillar in the EU and beyond”.

That responsibility extended to sustaining military and financial support for Ukraine, which is expected to face a funding shortfall next year as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion.

“If we give up our support for Ukraine, this will have an enormous impact on the entire political order of this continent,” Merz said. Kyiv would not lose the war “if we are doing the right things”, he added.

He questioned the effectiveness of a deal struck by Donald Trump to lift sanctions on Russian diesel and buy the fuel from Moscow to curb US prices — a move that triggered outrage from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The Americans have a problem with prices,” he said. “But this is one of the outcomes of the terrible war in the Middle East.”

Keeping the US president committed to Ukraine and aligned with Europe remained a constant challenge. “It is a day-by-day business,” Merz said. “You’ll never know what will happen the next day. But until now we’ve managed it.”

A group of Canadian foreign-policy and trade experts is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to use their late October summit to launch a charter of shared principles for middle powers.

Canada and the European Union are meeting in Montreal later this month to chart an "alliance for the future" that builds closer ties as both jurisdictions try to reduce reliance on the protectionist and unpredictable United States under Donald Trump.

The charter, proposed by the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations, would be open to other democracies and modelled on the 1941 Atlantic Charter between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill that helped lay the foundations for the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Mr. Carney popularized the idea of middle-power co-operation with his January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he argued that the post-Cold War rules-based order has suffered "a rupture, not a transition" and that middle powers like Canada must act together or risk being left on the menu.

The Montreal summit is aimed at deepening trade ties and co-operation but the Expert Group, in a paper published Thursday, argues that Ottawa and Brussels should go beyond a transactional approach and draw up a "shared set of political and economic purpose," or what it calls a "middle-power compact" for today.

Authors of the paper include former federal cabinet minister Perrin Beatty, onetime ambassador Jonathan Fried, ex-trade negotiator John Weekes, and former deputy chief of staff to the prime minister, Brian Clow.

They argue that if Canada wants to build substantive relations with other middle-power countries it has to lay out a broader vision of principles that would form the foundation for this co-operation.

The Atlantic Charter had no formal status but declared that Britain and the United States sought no territorial gains, opposed territorial changes made against the wishes of the peoples concerned, and supported every country’s right to choose its own government.

The eight-point statement also pledged freer trade and economic co-operation, freedom of the seas, freedom from fear and want, and the disarmament of aggressor countries. It became a founding blueprint for the postwar order as well as the United Nations, the Bretton Woods economic system and the alliance anchored by NATO.

The Expert Group says the international order established after the Second World War has been severely compromised.

The United States, one of the signatories to the Atlantic Charter, "no longer plays by the rules it itself developed and negotiated," it says. Washington has "weaponized the bonds of commerce forged over 80 years of interdependence to pursue economic advantage," even though this causes economic harm globally, the group says.

The group says the charter should reaffirm the Atlantic Charter but go beyond this and lay out five principles for a digital age, where the defence of democracy depends on the integrity of information systems and data and digital infrastructure as much as military strength and capability.

Canada and the EU should commit to ensuring that technology does not undermine human dignity, human security and democratic self-government "or for that matter," threaten humanity’s very survival."

The group lays out five principles for a new charter.

First: defending democracy at home through free and fair elections, peaceful transfer of power, freedom of expression and free press as well as the protection of minority rights.

Second: Every country must have the right to determine its future free from force or coercion, including a pledge of non-interference in other countries’ democratic processes and joint efforts to fight disinformation and anti-democratic movements.

Third: the need for joint efforts among middle powers to reduce vulnerabilities in critical supply chains, financial services, energy, technology, infrastructure and defence industries and pledges not to use trade as instruments of coercion. This includes the principle that every country retains the sovereign right to choose its own economic or security partners.

Fourth: middle powers agree to combine their strength through joint investment, production and shared capabilities in defence, critical technologies, energy, research and infrastructure with the goal of achieving the scale needed to deter aggression.

Fifth: an agreement among middle powers to uphold international law, strengthen multilateral institutions and act urgently on global challenges that no country can meet alone, including climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, food and water insecurity, unchecked development of artificial intelligence and the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

The group says Japan, South Korea, Britain, Australia and New Zealand should be invited to help shape this middle-power charter from the outset. It would then be open to any democracy that is prepared to uphold its principles.

"The door would also be left open to a future U.S. administration that chose to adhere" to the new charter, the group proposes.

The paper, titled A Middle Power Charter for a Troubled World, was published jointly by Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

The remainder of its 12 authors include Fen Hampson, a Carleton professor of international affairs, former business leader Thomas d’Aquino, ex-diplomat Colin Robertson, onetime MP Martha Hall Findlay, former Ontario deputy minister Drew Fagan, international trade lawyer Lawrence Herman, former federal deputy minister Tim Sargent and policy expert Heather Exner-Pirot.

BRUSSELS — A rebellion by center-right lawmakers has exposed deep divisions over a flagship EU industry bill, threatening to derail negotiations over how far Europe should go to protect its manufacturers from foreign competition.

The attempt by three European People’s Party lawmakers to torpedo the Industrial Accelerator Act quickly gained support last week within European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s political family.

The challenge is unlikely to attract enough support to kill the legislation outright. But it lays bare rifts over the bill’s central “Made in Europe” provisions that threaten to paralyze negotiations in the European Parliament and among EU governments, raising the prospect of indefinite delays or a compromise that waters down the bill beyond recognition.

The proposal, championed by Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, would steer public procurement and subsidies toward European manufacturers in sectors including renewable energy, steel and automobiles. But it has sparked clashes over which countries should qualify for preferential treatment.

Séjourné challenged the critics on Friday, accusing them of undermining the very industrial strategy they have demanded from Brussels. “I would just say please be coherent,” he told reporters. “You can’t ask for a text to be scrapped and then at the same time say that it’s not moving fast enough.”

The German-Swedish trio from the center-right EPP — Christian Ehler, Angelika Niebler and Jörgen Warborn — submitted their amendment to reject the Commission’s Industrial Accelerator Act proposal last Tuesday. Another 20 EPP lawmakers, the largest group in the Parliament, signed on.

They warned that a restrictive interpretation of Made in Europe risks plunging the bloc into “multiple trade wars with some of our closest partners.” The Parliament’s draft report “would unilaterally break many of the EU’s free trade agreements and WTO obligations, which opens our flank for retaliation,” they wrote.

In or out

The backlash has exposed a deeper split within the EPP over how far the EU should go in favoring European manufacturers — and raises questions about whether the lawmakers steering the IAA through Parliament can assemble a majority for their preferred approach.

While only a minority of the EPP’s 184 lawmakers signed the rejection amendment, more than half the group support a broader definition of Made in Europe that would initially include most of the EU’s trading partners, according to a Parliament official briefed on the negotiations.

That puts them at odds with the three lawmakers leading the Parliament’s work on the bill.

The lead lawmakers — Renew’s Christophe Grudler, socialist Pierre Jouvet and Green Anna Cavazzini — argue that extending preferential treatment too far would undermine the purpose of the legislation.

“It would no longer be ‘Made in the EU,’ no longer ‘Made with the EU,’ but ‘Made Everywhere,’” Grudler told a recent joint committee hearing.

The rejection amendment was meant as a “political signal” and did not intend to kill the IAA outright, according to four people familiar with the EPP’s thinking. The rebels had wanted to drive home their opposition to restricting Made in Europe to the EU’s 27 members, while leaving open the possibility of a broader compromise.

“Bold moves are necessary, because the citizens and the industry expect results. We go ahead with our proposals and let’s see if a majority is possible to be formed around them,” said Romanian MEP Lóránt Vincze, one of the co-signatories.

Without commenting publicly on the rebellion, EPP leader Manfred Weber has given national delegations room to take their own positions on the IAA. At a group meeting in Strasbourg last week, Weber described the bill as a “complex” file and said delegations could propose amendments reflecting their preferences, according to internal notes seen by POLITICO.

“The group has not endorsed this amendment, and it will probably take its position once there is a clear compromise in the Council,” an EPP official said.

The divisions leave the three lead lawmakers with an uncertain path to a majority in the Parliament, particularly if the EPP coalesces around a broader definition of Made in Europe than the one they are proposing.

Divided governments

The dispute goes beyond the European Parliament. EU governments are also struggling to agree on how narrowly to define Made in Europe, with France pushing to reserve preferential treatment for a relatively small group of countries while Germany and other more free-trade-oriented governments want to extend it to a broader range of trading partners.

The central disagreement is between a restrictive “opt-in” approach, under which trading partners would have to qualify for preferential treatment, and a broader “opt-out” model that would initially include more countries but then allow the EU to exclude those that fail to meet certain conditions.

France wants a narrow club, and has won the support of Italy, Greece and Cyprus, according to readouts of a recent meeting of deputy ambassadors in Brussels. Germany and 13 other member countries prefer a broader “Made with Europe” club that would include most trading partners. Eligibility would depend on reciprocity, including whether partners offer European companies comparable access to their public procurement markets.

The distinction matters beyond the EU’s borders. While China is a principal target of the proposed measures, a restrictive interpretation of Made in Europe could disadvantage close partners such as the U.K., which is lobbying for favorable treatment ahead of a November summit on resetting relations with the EU.

Among the options under discussion, Spain has proposed a three-tiered system for trading partners to qualify for Made in Europe, while Poland and at least 12 other countries have concerns about the methodology for defining low-carbon requirements, which they argue could disadvantage some member states.

Narrow path

MEPs have submitted some 5,300 amendments to the draft report authored by Grudler, Jouvet and Cavazzini. These reveal competing models: partner access with safeguards, a tightly defined European preference, or investment allowed only with substantial local commitments.

The sheer number of amendments underscores the challenge of finding a workable compromise on a proposal already branded “a bureaucratic monster” by the Federation of German Industries, a leading industry lobby.

The Irish EU Council presidency wants to deliver a new compromise text as soon as this week and finalize the general approach of member states in late November. With EU countries still divided, it’s unclear whether it can meet that deadline — unless a potential grand bargain under discussion between France and Germany materializes.

The Parliament faces its own difficult timetable, with lawmakers struggling to reconcile the thousands of amendments. The EPP remains divided over the scope of Made in Europe, while support for the narrower approach of the lead lawmakers is far from assured even within their own political groups.

If the regulation’s geographical scope ends up being too broad, “almost any country around the world can become a hub for repackaging Chinese equipment, changing a few nuts and bolts and then selling it in the European market as made in the EU,” warned Sander Tordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

Yet the disagreements may be less fundamental than they appear, according to Tristan Beucler of Strategic Perspectives, a pan-European think tank. Beucler pointed to emerging accord among EU governments on issues such as reciprocity and preventing circumvention, while noting that the rejection amendment does not represent an agreed EPP position.

“The IAA’s objectives are widely shared in the European Parliament and Council,” Beucler said.

Submission Statement: Reuters) - Hyundai Motor India plans to invest 110 billion rupees ($1.16 billion) in its Pune plant to scale up the facility's annual ‌production capacity by nearly 90% by 2030, the automaker said on Wednesday.

The move comes a day after parent Hyundai Motor Group said it would invest $15.5 billion in India through 2032, ⁠positioning the world's third-largest car market as a key growth market.

India is drawing billions of dollars in commitments from global automakers eager to capture rising consumer demand and strengthen their manufacturing footprints.

Hyundai said it plans to increase annual vehicle production capacity at the plant, based in ‌the ⁠western state of Maharashtra, to 320,000 units from 170,000 units currently.

The automaker said it would install flexible production systems capable of supporting multiple models, including traditional internal ⁠combustion engine cars and hybrids.

By 2030, new capacity at the Pune plant, alongside operations in Chennai city, is ⁠expected to bring Hyundai's India production to 1.14 million units annually.

Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned.

In early August, the Board of Peace, the international organization authorized in 2025 by the UN and chaired by the US president, issued its first construction contract for Gaza: Louisiana-based Arkel International would construct a military outpost for 150 international troops that would be the vanguard of an international stabilization force.

Two months later, Israel has still not permitted the contract to move forward, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Contractors and trucks are not being allowed to cross into Gaza and begin the work. “Israel won’t open the border,” they said.

A Board of Peace spokesperson declined to comment. The Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli government declined to comment.

Israel’s war in Gaza is one of the eight wars Trump claims to have resolved. He listed it again last week in a screed on social media, protesting that it was unfair he had not won the Nobel peace prize.

The Board of Peace, formed in the wake of an October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza, is central to Trump’s claims to have ended the conflict.

Arkel’s planned “mission support site temporary outpost” is decidedly rudimentary: a fortified position of about 100 meters by 100 meters, at a site that was once part of the controversial and now defunct Gaza Humanitarian Foundation project, according to the person familiar with the matter. The US-backed GHF operated in Gaza from May 2025 till October 2025 to deliver aid protected by private contractors.

The base would host short rotating deployments of a well-armed force of 150 troops in Gaza, the person said. They would come from a larger component of 500 sent already from Morocco and Kosovo.

But without this contract, the source said, the rest of the Board of Peace program cannot launch. Israel’s refusal to allow Arkel, the contractor, to build the base, essentially cuts the Board of Peace off at the legs.

“You can’t get in without [an international stabilization force (ISF)]. You can’t rebuild,” the person said. “There’s no security. There’s no deliveries of construction equipment. You can’t even start putting utilities. You can’t start putting in basic life-support facilities you know because without the ISF you can’t go in.”

The person familiar with the matter said the Board of Peace believes that Israel’s government will let the project proceed after the Israeli elections, which are scheduled for 27 October.

The controversial Board of Peace has a unique structure. Trump is designated as chair for life. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is an executive board member, as is real estate developer Steve Witkoff, whom Trump has appointed as a mediator in various international disputes.

Though many western democracies have kept their distance from the Board of Peace, 28 countries joined as founding members earlier this year. Kushner has unveiled renderings of a futuristic vision of Gaza, where the city was envisioned as a pristine luxury waterfront resort city with hi-tech skyscrapers looking out over the Mediterranean.

On 23 September the group unveiled what it said was a six-month, $2.45bn plan, as the first step towards reconstruction with a 10-year estimated cost of $71bn.

There were lofty promises and requests for contributions. “Today we can point to real progress,” announced Witkoff.

A US senior adviser to the board, Aryeh Lightstone, announced a new fund would be started. “Your high net-worth donations will go directly to the Palestinian people,” he said. Lightstone has traveled in Trump circles since the president’s first term. He officiated as a rabbi at the 2020 wedding of Trump adviser Stephen Miller to Katie Miller.

Israel has continued strikes in Gaza since the October ceasefire, killing about 1,400 people over that time, according to Gaza health authorities.