Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Lebanon’s Israel boycott law faces renewed pressure as military talks move to Tampa

    Lebanon’s Israel boycott law faces renewed pressure as military talks move to Tampa

    A routine legal complaint filed by a Lebanese attorney against his country’s top diplomat in the United States has ignited a cross-regional political firestorm, unleashing sharp new US pressure on Beirut to repeal a decades-old law that criminalizes direct contact with Israeli citizens. The high-stakes dispute comes just as Lebanese and Israeli military delegations prepare to gather this week at US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, for the next round of Washington-brokered negotiations, raising questions about the future of Lebanon’s longstanding boycott legislation.

    The controversy traces back to a September 27 report from local Lebanese outlet Beirut Review, which claimed that Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad had placed a condolence call to her Israeli counterpart in Washington, Yechiel Leiter, after Leiter’s son was critically injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. The report was quickly picked up by multiple Israeli media outlets, prompting Beiruti lawyer Hassan Bazzi to file an official complaint with Lebanon’s top public prosecutor in late September.

    Bazzi’s complaint, which was eventually referred to military court government commissioner Claude Ghanem, did not seek to directly convict Moawad; instead, it asked the Lebanese judiciary to confirm whether the media accounts of the call were accurate. Speaking to Middle East Eye, Bazzi emphasized that as both a sitting ambassador and a member of Lebanon’s official negotiating team with Israel, Moawad’s actions carry unique weight. “She is not an ordinary citizen,” Bazzi said. “An ambassador and a negotiator should be fighting in the name of the Lebanese people and their pain, especially southerners,” who have born the brunt of decades of cross-border conflict. Neither Moawad nor Lebanon’s foreign ministry issued an official denial of the reported call, though Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has publicly defended the ambassador, confirming the contact never occurred and warned that anyone seeking to undermine the US-backed peace process is committing a crime against the Lebanese state.

    Lebanon’s 1955 Boycott Law, the legislation at the center of the dispute, has stood for nearly 70 years, imposing penalties of three to 10 years of hard labor for any citizen who engages in contact with Israelis. In recent years, the law has been used to bring complaints against a range of public figures, including popular Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram earlier this 2024. While repealing the law only requires a simple parliamentary majority, no formal repeal legislation has ever been introduced for a vote. The law has taken on new relevance since April, when Moawad and Leiter became key participants in the US-brokered direct peace talks between the two nations. Those talks culminated in a landmark framework agreement signed in Washington on June 26, which outlines an Israeli military withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the deployment of the Lebanese army to the border region, Hezbollah disarmament, and a permanent end to cross-border hostilities.

    The US response to Bazzi’s complaint was far swifter and more forceful than the lawyer anticipated, breaking with the typical slow pace of Lebanese judicial proceedings. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott called the decision to hear the complaint against an ambassador acting on behalf of her legitimate government “embarrassing,” arguing that Lebanon’s military judiciary should redirect its limited resources toward prosecuting Hezbollah operatives accused of threatening the Lebanese state. The US also labeled Bazzi a “pro-Hezbollah lawyer,” a label he has forcefully rejected, noting he has filed complaints against political actors across the Lebanese spectrum over corruption and security breaches since 2011, with no singular partisan agenda. More notably, a senior US official confirmed to The Times of Israel that Washington is actively considering imposing economic sanctions on the Lebanese judges assigned to hear the complaint, escalating pressure to dismiss the case.

    In mid-October, Ghanem dismissed the complaint, ruling that even if the reported call had occurred, it would not qualify as a criminal offense under the 1955 law. The commissioner reasoned that the legislation only applies to commercial transactions with Israeli entities, not private or diplomatic contact. Bazzi has decried this ruling as an extremely dangerous departure from decades of legal precedent, arguing that the boycott law’s first clause explicitly includes “any other type of dealing” that has been broadly interpreted by successive governments and courts to cover cultural, athletic, and diplomatic contact. “This interpretation means that if the contact happened, it is not a criminal offense,” Bazzi said. “We would be opening up very serious security and political breaches by giving Lebanese people licence to contact anyone in the enemy state.” He has called for the investigation to be expanded under Article 278 of the Lebanese penal code, which criminalizes contact with agents of an enemy state.

    The legal dispute has supercharged a months-long US campaign to pressure Lebanon into repealing the boycott law entirely. Earlier this year in March, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers pressed US Ambassador to Beirut Michel Issa to ramp up lobbying for the law’s suspension. In April, following a White House-hosted round of negotiations, former President (and current President) Donald Trump told reporters he had been unaware of the law and called for its immediate elimination. “It’s crazy to have such legislation and I will work to put an end to it,” Trump said. A day after Ghanem dismissed Bazzi’s complaint, Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the issue in a formal phone call with President Aoun, describing the law as “impractical” and arguing it is repeatedly misused for politicized prosecutions that block progress toward peace. Ambassador Issa has echoed that sentiment, saying the law is indefensible amid direct US-sponsored talks, and has been lobbying Lebanese MPs, particularly those from anti-Hezbollah blocs, to support repeal.

    Within Lebanon, the push to abolish the law has only garnered a small group of public supporters. Beirut MP Fouad Makhzoumi has called for an immediate suspension, arguing that official peace negotiations require clear legal protection for diplomatic engagement. A small number of anti-Hezbollah commentators and activists have gone further, calling for full outright repeal. However, most of Lebanon’s anti-Hezbollah parliamentary blocs have remained hesitant to publicly back repeal, choosing to defend Moawad without endorsing changes to the boycott law. Kataeb Party official Salim Sayegh said the party sees no need to revisit the ban on contact with the enemy at this stage. Free Patriotic Movement MP Jimmy Jabbour called the issue “not up for discussion at all” under current conditions. Progressive Socialist Party MP Bilal Abdallah noted any debate on the law can only happen after Israel completes its promised withdrawal from Lebanese territory and a formal non-aggression agreement is reached. Hezbollah and its political ally the Amal Movement have refused to engage in any debate on the issue, with MP Waddah al-Sadek noting that most lawmakers are unwilling to open a debate that would trigger a major domestic political crisis.

    As the dispute over the law unfolds, the upcoming Tampa talks mark a key shift in the US-brokered negotiation process, moving from diplomatic bargaining to military implementation talks. The discussions will be led by US Marine Corps Major General Joseph Clearfield, with the Lebanese delegation expected to raise persistent Israeli violations of the “pilot withdrawal zones” outlined in the June framework agreement, where Israeli troops were supposed to hand over control to the Lebanese army. Lebanese officials cite ongoing Israeli attacks, cross-border incursions, and the killing of Lebanese civilians as evidence of these violations. According to Lebanese outlet L’Orient Today, Washington and Israel have made direct military-to-military coordination between the Lebanese and Israeli armies a core precondition for moving negotiations forward. At present, the political negotiation track remains effectively frozen, and implementation of the June framework agreement has stalled entirely.

    US officials have explicitly called for direct military-to-military communication between the two sides, a requirement that directly conflicts with the long-standing judicial interpretation of Lebanon’s boycott law. For opponents of repeal, the Moawad affair is a clear warning of the pressures that will continue to mount as negotiations progress. Bazzi emphasizes his complaint was filed weeks before the current escalation of the repeal campaign, and was only intended to uphold a longstanding legal principle. That principle is now under growing pressure both at the Tampa negotiating table and from sustained US lobbying in Beirut. “If this call is true, it is a capitulation to the Israelis,” Bazzi said, “and a provocation to our feelings as southerners.”

  • French authorities struggle to regain control after deadly weekend of protests

    French authorities struggle to regain control after deadly weekend of protests

    France is facing one of its most severe domestic political crises in modern history after a chaotic, violence-fueled weekend left two civilians dead, thousands injured, and major urban centers resembling war zones, as law enforcement struggled to regain control of public streets. The unrest has cast a deep shadow over the final months of President Emmanuel Macron’s tenure in office.

    The scale of the rioting, widely described as the worst period of civil disorder France has seen since the mass student and worker uprisings that pushed the nation to the edge of revolution in May 1968, prompted Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to convene an emergency crisis cabinet meeting on Monday to coordinate a government response.

    Following the closed-door meeting, Lecornu announced that the government was asking local municipal governments across affected regions to implement targeted partial curfews to stem further violence. The prime minister also confirmed that the administration had not ruled out implementing a nationwide state of emergency if unrest continues to escalate.

    Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lecornu emphasized that the government was “fully resolved to restoring public order” across the country. He noted that if security authorities determined a state of emergency was required to contain the violence, the administration would move forward with the declaration. At this stage of the response, however, Lecornu added that targeted partial curfews appeared to be a more proportional and appropriate measure.

    Law enforcement agencies have already taken at least 2,000 protesters into custody across the nation since the unrest erupted, with widespread reports of serious life-altering injuries among demonstrators. Two protesters have had hands completely severed by police stun grenades, and earlier this month, a 15-year-old boy also lost a hand after being hit by a police stun grenade in a separate incident.

    In a controversial decision that has drawn sharp criticism from opposition groups, President Macron rejected the resignation offer from Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, even after government authorities acknowledged that “failures in anticipation and intelligence” on the part of security services directly worsened the scale of the crisis. Macron opted to keep Nunez in his post to preserve an uninterrupted chain of command for security operations, as police and national security forces continue to work to contain spreading unrest.

    “Those who destroyed must pay,” Macron stated in an address to the nation on Sunday evening. “Those who looted must pay back. Those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.”

    The unrest began on Saturday, when an estimated half a million people marched across the country to protest soaring living costs, long-standing underperformance in the state education system, and steadily deteriorating public services. The initial protests were followed by widespread looting and arson, with independent estimates indicating that rioters damaged or destroyed more than 1,500 independent shops and small businesses across the nation.

    The roots of the current movement stretch back to September, when student and teacher strikes began in under-resourced, impoverished suburbs of Paris. The strikers were demanding increased funding and resources for schools that lacked basic equipment and staffing. While government officials ultimately agreed to meet the core demands of the initial strikers, the movement struck a powerful chord across the nation, with millions of French people who had long held frustrations over the education system and stagnating economy joining the protests.

    A harsh, heavy-handed crackdown by police, marked by frequent incidents of violence against student protesters, pushed thousands more previously uninvolved citizens onto the streets to join the demonstrations, amplifying the scale of the unrest.

    In the southern port city of Marseille, which saw some of the worst weekend violence and looting, local authorities issued an official order banning all public gatherings and demonstrations from midday to 8 p.m. on Monday to prevent further disorder.

    By the end of the chaotic weekend, the French capital of Paris had been reduced to what one visiting observer described to Reuters as a “war zone,” with burned-out vehicles, broken storefronts, and debris littering major commercial districts.

    “It’s heartbreaking, heartbreaking seeing our city like this,” 59-year-old Marseille resident Farida, who declined to share her last name with Reuters, told reporters. “If every protest ends with all the shop windows smashed and stores trashed, this simply cannot go on – it cannot go on.”

    The outbreak of large-scale unrest comes as France, the European Union’s second-largest economy, is already reeling from overlapping fiscal and social crises. The nation narrowly escaped falling into a technical recession in the second quarter of this year, and the sharp spike in global energy prices driven by ongoing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East has hit the country’s energy-dependent economy particularly hard.

    Weeks before the current unrest erupted, the Wall Street Journal warned that growing “uncertainty about the country’s political and fiscal future has also contributed to a slowdown in what was once one of Europe’s more reliable growth engines.”

    New survey data from Medef, France’s largest national employers’ federation, underscores the deep anxiety French business leaders hold over ongoing political instability. The survey found that 82 percent of responding business leaders expressed pessimism about the current government’s economic policy agenda. Sixty-six percent of respondents added that their companies face a high risk of bankruptcy or increased financial fragility if major changes to national economic policy are not implemented over the next three to five years.

  • Inside the Turkey-Azerbaijan rift: How a headscarf ban strained an alliance

    Inside the Turkey-Azerbaijan rift: How a headscarf ban strained an alliance

    Two weeks ago, a celebratory announcement in Baku painted a rosy picture of Turkey-Azerbaijan cooperation. Senior Turkish military and defense industry figures gathered with Azerbaijani counterparts to unveil $500 million in new arms supply contracts, a visible milestone in the bilateral relationship shaped by shared ethnic, religious, cultural, and historical bonds. This partnership was formalized and deepened by the 2021 Shusha Declaration, a mutual defense pact that anchored the two nations’ commitment to one another’s security. Beyond defense, the alliance has grown to encompass multi-billion-dollar cross-investments spanning energy, transportation, construction, and agriculture, making the sudden public eruption of tension all the more striking.

  • Warning signs over threats to Australian politicians were rising before MP hit by car

    Warning signs over threats to Australian politicians were rising before MP hit by car

    For years, as high-profile assaults on elected officials have grown more common across the globe, Australia has carried a quiet, conflicting anxiety: that such chaos could never take root in its traditionally peaceful political culture, yet that it was only a matter of time before the country faced its own deadly incident. That moment arrived this Monday, when independent Member of Parliament Helen Haines suffered severe injuries after being hit by a vehicle outside her electoral office in Wangaratta, a regional town in the state of Victoria.

    Local law enforcement took a 43-year-old male suspect into custody at the scene and seized a knife from his possession, though investigators have not yet publicly confirmed that Haines was targeted intentionally. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, has publicly stated that the incident appears to be a deliberate attack, following a briefing from federal counter-terrorism officers who are assisting local investigators with the probe. Albanese, who was evacuated from his official residence earlier this year over a bomb threat and currently has roughly 20 violent threat cases against him working through Australian courts, spoke emotionally of the pervasive fear that has spread among the nation’s political class in recent years.

    Long perceived as a largely peaceful nation with a civil tradition of public discourse, Australia has until recently treated political violence as a rare anomaly. The botched 1966 assassination attempt on Labor Party leader Arthur Calwell has faded into a distant, almost forgotten piece of national history. But for years, elected officials and security experts have sounded the alarm over a steady buildup of threats, fueled by fraying social cohesion, deepening political polarization, and increasingly heated public rhetoric around key policy issues. Monday’s incident, many warn, has turned long-held worst-case fears into reality.

    A closer look at recent data paints a stark picture of the growing crisis. In the 12-month period ending in June, Australian authorities recorded 1,067 reports of harassing and threatening behavior targeting high-level elected officials, marking a continued increase from the previous year. That trend extends far beyond threats against the prime minister: in recent years, politicians have received bullets in the mail; female MPs and even their minor children have been targeted with sexual violence threats; a Jewish lawmaker’s office was firebombed; a Sydney mayor’s vehicle was set on fire; and hundreds of other elected officials have had their constituency offices vandalized. Just one week before Haines’ injury, Small Business Minister Anne Aly revealed she had been inundated with death threats after an opposition politician publicly called for her to be “shamed and stoned in the square” over a tax policy dispute.

    Josh Roose, a Deakin University professor specializing in violent extremism research, told reporters that Australia has spent far too long ignoring the slow creep of political violence, dismissing warnings with the refrain “it can’t happen here.” He explained that multiple interconnected factors have driven the dramatic escalation of threats since the COVID-19 pandemic, including widespread socioeconomic strain, rising unaddressed mental health needs across communities, bad-faith actors that profit politically and financially from stoking public anger, and a toxic online discourse that normalizes violent rhetoric against public figures. Roose added that the political class itself bears partial responsibility for the shift, noting that long-held unwritten rules against targeting individual politicians and their family members have been abandoned by actors across the entire political spectrum. He also warned that politicians are not the only targets: journalists, academic researchers, judicial officials, and other public figures also face growing risk of violence.

    Australia’s top intelligence officials have been sounding the alarm on this growing threat for years. Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, reiterated the warning in the agency’s 2026 annual threat assessment, comparing rising political violence to climate change: while specific attacks cannot be predicted, broader systemic shifts make politically motivated violence, including potential terrorist attacks, far more likely than in decades past. Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett added earlier this month that ideology is not the only driver of radicalization today. Many attackers are motivated by personal grievance, she explained, feeling disconnected and isolated from their communities and turning to political violence to give their anger purpose.

    Many members of Australia’s parliament have grown frustrated with the slow pace of security reform, arguing that existing protection protocols have not kept up with the changing threat landscape. If the attack on Haines is ultimately confirmed to be politically motivated, experts warn, one of the core traditions of Australian democracy could be put at risk. Unlike many other Western nations, Australia has long prided itself on the accessibility of its politicians: it is common for constituents to run into their local member at a grocery store, chat with them at a local football match, and walk into their constituency office at any time to share concerns. Haines, Prime Minister Albanese emphasized, was particularly well-known and respected for her commitment to open, accessible community engagement.

    “That accessibility is a core strength of our democracy,” Albanese said Monday night. “I don’t want to see a system where we can’t have open conversations with constituents in the supermarket, on the street, at public meetings and forums. That’s what makes our democracy work for Australians.” The attack on Haines has now forced the nation to confront a growing crisis that many have spent decades ignoring, leaving open questions about how the country will protect its elected leaders while preserving the open political culture it has long cherished.

  • Obama blasts federal probe of congresswoman Ilhan Omar as ‘so appalling’

    Obama blasts federal probe of congresswoman Ilhan Omar as ‘so appalling’

    A fierce political firestorm has erupted over a federal criminal investigation into Minnesota Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, with former US President Barack Obama sounding a sharp alarm that the probe is nothing more than political retaliation for Omar’s unflinching criticism of current presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump. In a public post Sunday on X, the former two-term president argued that the full coercive power of the federal government is being deployed against a law-abiding elected official solely because she has dared to speak out against Trump, labeling the investigation “so appalling.”

    The investigation, which gained public attention last week when Department of Homeland Security agents executed a search warrant at Omar’s Washington, D.C. residence, centers on inconsistencies related to Omar’s immigration history and 1995 entry to the United States. Born in Somalia, Omar relocated to the U.S. as a child with her family, and federal investigators are examining whether she misstated her age on her citizenship application. Multiple U.S. media outlets have confirmed the probe specifically questions whether the birth date listed on her naturalization paperwork deviates from her actual date of birth.

    Obama laid out a key legal context in his post, noting that Omar’s father became a naturalized U.S. citizen when she was 17 years old, when she was still a legal minor, a status that automatically granted her citizenship under federal immigration law. He argued the current administration is pushing to deport Omar based entirely on an unproven claim that she was actually 18 when her father naturalized, which would disqualify her from automatic citizenship. “If this becomes the new normal,” Obama warned, “there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her – or that future presidents, in either party, won’t do the same.”

    Under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rules, a child born outside the U.S. automatically gains citizenship if at least one parent is a naturalized or birthright citizen, the child is under 18 years of age, holds lawful permanent resident status, and resides in the U.S. under the custody of the citizen parent.

    The White House has pushed back hard against claims of political motivation, defending the investigation as a legitimate exercise of law enforcement. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis asserted in an emailed statement to the BBC that unlike President Joe Biden, Trump has never weaponized the Department of Justice against his political opponents. “The Department is focused on restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe,” Bis said. Notably, Trump himself has repeatedly claimed that past federal criminal investigations launched against him during his 2020 re-election campaign were politically motivated efforts to undermine his candidacy.

    If investigators prove Omar submitted material false statements during her naturalization process, the Justice Department could move to revoke her citizenship and initiate deportation proceedings. This is not the first time Omar has faced partisan backlash from congressional Republicans: in 2023, the GOP caucus removed Omar from the high-profile House Foreign Affairs Committee over controversial comments she made about Israel, a move that drew bipartisan criticism at the time.

    Omar has long pushed back against Trump’s attacks, saying he has targeted her for years with “baseless lies and smear campaigns” and framing the current investigation as “the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.” Trump has countered that the investigation has “nothing to do” with him, while still describing Omar as a “terrible person” and a “complainer.”

    According to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, federal agents seized Omar’s phone, personal computers, notebooks, and passport during the raid last week. Omar’s legal team has since demanded the federal government return the seized materials, arguing in a Friday legal filing that the seizure violated restrictions a judge put in place to protect Omar’s legislative work as a sitting member of Congress. The legal team also alleges that agents failed to properly notify both Omar and the House of Representatives general counsel ahead of the search, and blocked Omar from contacting her legal counsel for more than an hour after the raid began.

    Along partisan lines, congressional Democrats have framed the raid as an unconstitutional attempt by the executive branch to interfere with the work of the legislative branch. Republicans, by contrast, have argued that Omar is not above the law and should face the same regulatory and investigative scrutiny as any other American.

    A key unmentioned context in Obama’s Sunday post adds layers of irony to the current debate: during Obama’s first presidential campaign and throughout his two terms in office, Trump repeatedly pushed the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to hold the presidency. Obama ultimately was forced to release two official birth records confirming his birth in Hawaii to put the baseless claims to rest, though he did not reference this history in his recent statement about Omar.

  • Egyptian construction firms surveyed sites in Gaza for ‘Green Rafah’ project, sources say

    Egyptian construction firms surveyed sites in Gaza for ‘Green Rafah’ project, sources say

    Months after Israel’s full-scale military campaign reduced most of Rafah to rubble, Egyptian construction companies have completed initial site assessments for a new residential development dubbed the ‘Green Rafah’ project in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip, two anonymous Egyptian sources confirmed to Middle East Eye.

    Once a vibrant hub of 250,000 Palestinian residents, home to crowded refugee camps, lively local markets and sprawling agricultural green spaces on Gaza’s southern border, Rafah has been left nearly unrecognizable by the war. Israeli military operations have demolished at least 80% of all structures across the governorate, displacing nearly the entire population and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

    A senior Egyptian military source stationed in North Sinai told MEE that Egyptian engineering teams accessed multiple survey sites in eastern Rafah, accompanied and supervised throughout the entire mission by Israeli ground and air forces, before exiting the blockaded Palestinian enclave. Under current plans, the first phase of the development will house approximately 20,000 displaced Palestinians, the source said, with long-term oversight to be carried out by a multinational peacekeeping force that will deploy across multiple regions of Gaza under the terms of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.

    Debris clearance and full construction work will likely not begin until after Israel’s upcoming national elections, the source added, to avoid the project being politicized by opponents of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and disrupting the electoral process.

    A second source, an employee of the Organi Group, a conglomerate linked to powerful Sinai-based businessman and tribal leader Ibrahim al-Arjani, confirmed the details of the mission, noting company leadership had ordered teams to deploy to the earmarked residential site to complete surveys. Arjani, 49, has well-documented long-standing ties to Egypt’s national security establishment, and has been accused over the years of leveraging those political connections to expand his multi-sector business empire across North Sinai and broader Egypt. Two of his connected firms already hold extensive control over cross-border movement of people and goods through the Rafah border crossing: Sons of Sinai, a construction and contracting firm, manages exit permits for cargo trucks, while Hala for Consulting and Tourism Services holds exclusive rights to coordinate traveler transportation between Egypt and Gaza.

    “The survey of the designated area has already been delivered so that the necessary engineering drawings and studies can be prepared ahead of construction, including rubble removal and land preparation,” the Organi Group source said. “Work would proceed once we get the go-ahead to clear the debris and level the land so we can begin construction. Green Rafah is intended to fall under international administration, separating Gaza from Israel.”

    Both sources confirmed that construction firms linked to Organi are positioned to secure the majority of the reconstruction work assigned to Egypt, with smaller sub-contracts expected to be awarded to other Egyptian construction companies. MEE requested comment from both the Organi Group and Egypt’s State Information Service prior to publication, but received no response.

    The Green Rafah proposal is not an isolated initiative: it aligns with a broader US-backed Gaza reconstruction vision, the ‘New Gaza’ plan, unveiled by former US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Kushner’s framework calls for a full-scale redevelopment of Gaza, including over 100,000 new permanent housing units concentrated in a redeveloped Rafah, 200 new educational facilities, new industrial zones and upgraded transport infrastructure. The plan has faced widespread criticism for its lack of clarity on critical issues: it makes no mention of transferring land ownership deeds to Palestinian residents, provides no framework for allocating new housing to displaced families, and does not explain how thousands of Palestinians still living in intact structures in central Gaza and western Gaza City would be relocated to make way for planned redevelopment.

    Details of the Green Rafah project first emerged publicly in August, when Israeli Army Radio reported that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz had approved preliminary infrastructure work in eastern Rafah, on the Israeli-controlled side of the Yellow Line, for a residential development for Palestinians living outside of Hamas governance. The report added that the project would include full excavation and connection to water, electricity and sewage networks, and that all Palestinian contractors and workers would be required to pass security screenings by Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency before being allowed to enter the work site. Netanyahu’s office later walked back parts of the report, clarifying that Green Rafah is a UAE-backed pilot initiative that had already been in development for several months, with all infrastructure work to proceed under Israeli military oversight.

    According to the senior Egyptian military source, the entire survey operation in Rafah has full backing from the United States, with formal instructions conveyed by CIA Director John Ratcliffe during his recent visit to Egypt. During a September 20 meeting in Cairo with Ratcliffe and Egyptian General Intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi emphasized the need to fully implement the second phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan. Public statements released by the Egyptian presidency after the meeting only noted that Sisi called for a consolidated permanent ceasefire, protection of civilian lives, and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid into Gaza, while Ratcliffe praised Egypt’s role in brokering the current truce and ongoing mediation efforts. No public mention was made of the Green Rafah project during the readout.

    To date, progress on large-scale Gaza reconstruction remains severely stalled by a massive funding gap. A joint assessment published in April by the United Nations, World Bank and European Union estimated that Gaza will require $71.4 billion over the next decade to recover from the war and rebuild, with $26.3 billion needed in the first 18 months alone. The Board of Peace, the body overseeing the New Gaza initiative, has confirmed that only $280 million in funding has been committed to date. Kushner stated at a Board of Peace event in late September that any company interested in participating in reconstruction will be able to bid through a “transparent bid process”, but the organization declined to answer MEE’s questions about the potential role of Egyptian firms including Organi-connected contractors. MEE also requested comment from the White House, CIA and Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and received no responses prior to publication.

    Thus far, only one reconstruction contract has been awarded for work inside Gaza: US-based Louisiana firm Arkel International has been tapped to build a military outpost to house 150 international peacekeeping troops.

  • Australian MP critically injured after apparent car attack

    Australian MP critically injured after apparent car attack

    A 65-year-old independent Australian Member of Parliament, renowned for her high-profile work pushing for national anti-corruption reform, remains in critical care in a Melbourne hospital after being struck by a vehicle in what top Australian officials believe was a deliberate politically motivated attack.

    The incident unfolded shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time on Monday outside Haines’ constituency office on Murphy Street in Wangaratta, a regional community of roughly 30,000 people located approximately three hours northeast of Melbourne, Victoria. According to Victoria Police official statements, Haines was pinned between two vehicles after the collision, a detail confirmed by a witness who spoke to public broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She was first transported to a local Wangaratta medical facility before being airlifted via helicopter to a specialized major trauma center in Melbourne for urgent treatment.

    Authorities took a 43-year-old man from the nearby regional town of Tarrawingee into custody at the scene, following a quick intervention by a civilian passerby who subdued the suspect before law enforcement arrived. Investigators confirmed a knife was recovered inside the suspect’s vehicle, a white Toyota Landcruiser. Counter-terrorism policing units have joined the ongoing investigation into the attack.

    As of Tuesday, official investigators have not formally confirmed whether the incident was an intentional act, nor have they established a connection between Haines and the suspect. Police have also moved to reassure the public that there is no remaining active threat to the broader Wangaratta community. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, has publicly stated that all early evidence points to this being a deliberate attack, not an accidental collision.

    The attack comes amid growing official warnings of rising violence and intimidation targeting Australian elected officials. Albanese noted that political tensions across the country have risen sharply in recent years, a sentiment echoed by his Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who released official data showing reports of threatening and harassing behavior directed at federal politicians increased from 951 to 1,066 incidents over the past 12 months. These numbers align with broader long-term trends: a 2024 Australian parliamentary report found that physical attacks and threats against politicians have grown “significantly over the past decade,” and Australia’s top domestic intelligence agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, warned last year that the risk of politically motivated violence against public officials was already “flashing red.”

    While Haines is not a household name for many Australians outside of political circles, she commands widespread respect across the ideological spectrum as a leading anti-corruption advocate. First elected to federal parliament in 2019 as an independent candidate, Haines quickly emerged as a key driver of integrity reform in Australian politics. In 2021, she introduced landmark draft legislation to create a national anti-corruption watchdog, and she is widely credited with pushing the ruling Labor government to formally establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission in the last parliamentary term. She currently serves on the parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing the new commission. Beyond anti-corruption work, Haines has collaborated with other high-profile independent MPs to advance policy action on climate change and gender equality, and is widely viewed as a unifying figure in an era of increasingly fractured partisan politics.

    Political leaders from every major party have united in expressing shock, condemnation, and support for Haines and her family in the wake of the attack. Albanese became visibly emotional during a live interview on ABC’s flagship current affairs program 730, telling reporters “there is no place for violence in a democracy” and praising Haines as a politician of unwavering integrity. “My concern at this point in time is for one of my colleagues,” he said, appearing close to tears when asked if elected officials routinely discuss the personal safety risks they face.

    Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, head of the center-right Liberal Party, said he was “deeply saddened and distressed” by the news, adding that all Australians would be “angry and appalled by the attack on Helen.” Matt Canavan, leader of the rural conservative Nationals party, extended his sympathies to Haines and her family following the “shocking attack.” Greens leader Senator David Shoebridge called Haines “an extraordinary human being who brings people together like few others,” saying he was horrified by the apparent attack. Pauline Hanson, founder and leader of the right-wing One Nation party, emphasized that violence against elected representatives is “never acceptable,” noting “Members of parliament and their staff must be able to serve their communities without fearing for their safety.” Fellow independent MP Allegra Spender, who has worked closely with Haines on multiple policy initiatives, described her as “the best of us.”

    The investigation into the attack remains ongoing, with authorities yet to release any details about a potential motive.

  • Catalonia’s former rebel president can return to Spain, court rules

    Catalonia’s former rebel president can return to Spain, court rules

    Nearly a decade after he fled Spain following a failed bid for Catalan independence, former Catalonia regional president Carles Puigdemont can now return to the country without risk of arrest, following a landmark ruling from Spain’s Supreme Court. The high court has formally upheld a ruling to withdraw the national arrest warrant issued against Puigdemont over his role in organizing the 2017 unauthorized independence referendum, a vote that defied the central government in Madrid.

    After the 2017 referendum, Madrid imposed direct rule on the northeastern region, and Puigdemont fled to Belgium, where he has resided in self-imposed exile ever since. His only confirmed brief return to Spanish territory came earlier in 2024, a surprise appearance in Barcelona that immediately triggered a nationwide police manhunt before he escaped back across the border to France. Today, however, the political landscape Puigdemont would reenter looks drastically different than it did seven years ago: the Catalan independence movement has faded to a marginal issue on Spain’s national political agenda.

    Monday’s ruling closes out a years-long, tangled legal battle between the Spanish judiciary and the former separatist leader. The conflict over Puigdemont’s legal status reignited in 2024, when Spain’s ruling socialist government introduced a controversial amnesty law covering dozens of Catalan politicians and activists linked to the secession push. Initially, the Supreme Court ruled that Puigdemont and several of his closest allies should be excluded from the amnesty, arguing that ongoing charges of financial misconduct tied to the 2017 referendum disqualified them from the pardon.

    That ruling was overturned by Spain’s Constitutional Court earlier this month. On Monday, the Supreme Court additionally rejected an appeal brought by far-right opposition party Vox against the withdrawal of arrest warrants for Puigdemont and two of his former ministers, Lluís Puig and Toni Comín. The decision now paves the way for all three separatist leaders to return to Spain without legal risk of detention.

    Puigdemont, who leads the center-right pro-independence party Together for Catalonia (JxCat), was elected to the European Parliament in 2019, and won a seat in the Catalan regional parliament in 2024. For years, he has campaigned from just across Spain’s northern border in southern France, holding rallies where supporters travel from Catalonia to attend. He has remained an active voice for the independence cause across the continent, regularly criticizing Spanish democratic institutions while working to raise international awareness for the separatist movement.

    In the years immediately following the 2017 referendum, nine of Puigdemont’s former colleagues were jailed for their roles in the secession push; all were ultimately pardoned and released by the Spanish government in 2021. Immediately following Monday’s Supreme Court announcement, Puigdemont released a video on social media explaining his decision to remain in exile for seven years. “My role was to stir public opinion, internationalise the conflict and work from the heart of Europe to explain the reality of Spain,” he said.

    As of Monday, no official timeline has been announced for Puigdemont’s return to Spain. However, Comín, his former regional health minister and fellow exiled separatist, confirmed plans to travel to Madrid this week to complete administrative procedures tied to his status as an MEP.

    The 2017 unauthorized referendum triggered the most severe political crisis Spain has faced since the country transitioned back to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco. The banned vote was met with a harsh police crackdown by national authorities, and after Catalonia’s separatist-led regional parliament declared independence, Madrid dissolved the regional legislature, removed the sitting separatist government, and called an emergency snap regional election.

    Today, the issue of Catalan independence no longer holds a central spot in Spanish politics, with voters and parties prioritizing pressing issues like housing affordability and immigration. Even so, Puigdemont’s JxCat party retains critical political sway: its parliamentary support was instrumental in allowing current socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form his new left-wing national government after the 2023 general election.

    Within Catalonia itself, JxCat has faced growing electoral pressure in recent years, with the more extreme pro-independence party Catalan Alliance siphoning off much of its traditional voter base. The political uncertainty comes as Spain prepares for a new general election next month, with polls indicating that the far right could enter the national governing coalition for the first time in modern Spanish history.

  • What we know about apparent attack on Australian MP hit by car

    What we know about apparent attack on Australian MP hit by car

    A shocking violent incident has shaken Australian politics: 65-year-old independent Member of Parliament Helen Haines was struck by a car in a suspected deliberate attack near her Wangaratta electorate office on Monday local time, leaving her with critical injuries and requiring urgent hospitalization. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed the attack was deliberate, and counter-terrorism police have been assigned to lead the ongoing investigation.

    The incident unfolded at approximately 3:35 p.m. local time on Murphy Street in Wangaratta, a regional city of 30,000 residents located roughly three hours northeast of Melbourne in Victoria state. According to Victoria Police, Haines was hit by a white Toyota Landcruiser driven by a 43-year-old man from Tarrawingee. Remarkably, the suspect was detained at the scene by a quick-acting passer-by before official police officers took him into custody. Law enforcement also confirmed a knife was seized from inside the vehicle, though investigators have not yet confirmed whether the suspect and Haines have any prior connection, and the full motive for the attack remains unconfirmed as inquiries progress.

    Beyond the details of the incident, Haines’ background paints a picture of a widely respected public servant with deep roots in regional Victorian communities. Born and raised on a southwest Victorian dairy farm alongside four brothers, Haines trained early in her career as a nurse and midwife, rising to serve as matron of Chiltern Bush Nursing Hospital at just 26 years old. Balancing parenthood to three children and full-time work, she later went on to earn a master’s degree in public health and a PhD in Medical Science. Today, she lives with her family on a small cattle farm on the outskirts of Wangaratta, and has represented the regional seat of Indi in Australia’s House of Representatives since her first election in 2019, with successful re-election campaigns in 2022 and 2025.

    In the wake of the attack, top Australian political leaders from across the ideological spectrum have united in expressing shock and extending well wishes to Haines. During a live interview on ABC’s flagship 7.30 program, an emotional Albanese appeared close to tears as he addressed the attack, saying “My concern at this point in time is for one, one of my colleagues.” He later reflected on a growing coarsening of public discourse in Australia, noting that there has been a “rise in temperature” across national politics, with “too much shouting, not enough discourse.”

    Paying tribute to Haines, the prime minister highlighted her decades of service and personal character: “She is incredibly hard-working. She is fiercely intelligent but most importantly she is just a thoroughly decent human being full of integrity and respected right across the Parliament and from everyone who comes into contact with her.” Albanese added that the attack would come as an “incredible shock” to Haines’ tight-knit regional community.

    Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed a troubling broader trend accompanying the attack: official reports of harassment and threatening behavior targeting Australian lawmakers have risen substantially in the 2025-26 financial year, compared to 951 such reports recorded in the prior year. Other senior leaders joined in condemning the violence: Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the incident a “shocking and deeply disturbing attack”, Victorian Premier Ben Carroll said he was “deeply appalled” by the act of violence, and opposition leader Angus Taylor shared that he was “deeply saddened and distressed” by the attack, noting “This is a shocking day for our nation. No-one should be targeted in this way.”

    As of the latest updates, the investigation into the attack remains active, with counter-terrorism units leading the probe to uncover a full picture of the suspect’s plans and motives.

  • Personal attacks fire up debate before Brazil’s run-off vote

    Personal attacks fire up debate before Brazil’s run-off vote

    With Brazil’s high-stakes presidential runoff election just seven days away, the nation’s two leading candidates — incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Liberal Party challenger Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — faced off in a chaotic televised debate that has left political analysts warning of growing voter alienation ahead of Sunday’s vote.

    Recent polling data has painted the race as virtually tied, making the pre-runoff debate cycle a critical opportunity for both candidates to court the shrinking bloc of undecided voters that will likely decide the outcome. Sunday’s clash marked the first of two scheduled debates before polls open, with a second face-off set for Friday, just 48 hours before voters head to the ballot boxes.

    The runoff was triggered after neither candidate hit the 50% valid vote threshold required to win outright in the first round held on October 4. In a surprise upset that defied pre-election polling projections, Flávio Bolsonaro — the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted to over 20 years in prison for plotting a coup to overturn Lula’s 2022 election victory — secured a narrow first-round lead: 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45.2%.

    Brazil’s democratic history has set a steep hurdle for Lula to overcome: since the country returned to civilian rule in 1988, no candidate trailing after the first round has ever climbed back to win the runoff. Undaunted, the incumbent has framed his campaign as a second-half comeback, telling supporters he will “win in extra time.”

    Instead of focusing on policy proposals to sway undecided voters, however, the first debate quickly devolved into a series of personal jabs and bitter attacks, a dynamic that political analysts say could push already frustrated voters to stay home on election day. Brazil already saw higher-than-average abstention rates in the first round, and experts warn the aggressive, unproductive tone of the debate could drive that number even higher.

    Yuri Sanches, an analyst with polling firm AtlasIntel, called the event a policy-free exchange that offered independent voters nothing to endorse. “This was a debate with no discussion of public policy, no rational arguments on either side,” Sanches noted. “Independent voters — those who lean against Bolsonaro at times and against Lula’s Workers’ Party at others — left with an overwhelmingly negative impression.”

    Different analysts gave differing assessments of which candidate came out ahead on tactical terms. Lucas Aragão, a researcher with political consultancy Arko Advice, argued that Flávio Bolsonaro managed to get under Lula’s skin by maintaining a calm demeanor while provoking the incumbent. But Rafael Cortez, senior analyst at da Tendências Consultoria, countered that Lula scored a key rhetorical win when he offered to open his own financial records and phone data — as well as those of his immediate family — to full judicial scrutiny, then challenged Bolsonaro to match the pledge before election day.

    Many observers also criticized the debate’s loose format, which allowed both candidates to wander the studio while their opponent spoke, leading to frequent interruptions and chaotic, overlapping exchanges. One of the most heated moments came when Bolsonaro called Lula over to his podium to speak face-to-face. Lula, referencing long-standing allegations linking the Bolsonaro family to far-right paramilitary militia groups, rejected the invitation outright. “I don’t want to get close to you,” Lula said. “I want to keep my distance from the Bolsonaro family, and from the militia.”

    Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly dismissed the militia links as fabricated fake news, fired back with a sniping personal retort: “On second thought, maybe it’s better I keep my distance too, so my wallet doesn’t get stolen.” He went on to repeatedly accuse Lula’s Workers’ Party of systemic corruption, holding up his palm to display the handwritten word “CORRUPTO” (Portuguese for “corrupt”), pointing out that the middle two letters of the word matched the Portuguese initials for the Workers’ Party, PT.

    Running on a platform of tough, iron-fisted anti-crime policy, Bolsonaro also pressed Lula to explain the rise in national crime rates during Lula’s current four-year term, and repeated an unsubstantiated claim that “the majority of prison inmates vote for Lula.” Lula hit back immediately with a direct jab at Bolsonaro’s imprisoned father: “I wish it was 100% of them — even your father.”

    With the race still too close to call, all eyes now turn to the second and final pre-election debate on Friday, as both campaigns scramble to lock in undecided support before Sunday’s vote.