Middle East on high alert as Israel marks one year since Hamas attack

At present’s agenda: Trump’s pricey pledges; anxious Europeans save extra; Netanyahu’s ‘Washington sport’; Starmer ‘wields the knife’; and HTSI interviews Kim Kardashian

Good morning. The Center East is on excessive alert as we speak as Israel marks a yr since Hamas’s horrific assaults during which 1,200 folks have been killed and 251 taken hostage. 1000’s of Israelis are anticipated to pay their respects at memorials and occasions, together with in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Sq., the place households and supporters have campaigned for the discharge of these taken.

In the meantime, preventing continued on a number of fronts on the weekend. Israel launched its heaviest 24-hour period of air strikes on Beirut yesterday and bombed Deir al-Balah in Gaza. Hizbollah hit the Israeli port metropolis of Haifa early this morning, Israel’s army mentioned.

Worldwide criticism: French President Emmanuel Macron has known as for a suspension of weapons shipments to Israel and warned towards additional escalation in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled these backing an arms embargo a “shame”. In the meantime, Irish President Michael D Higgins slammed what he known as “outrageous” threats by the Israeli army for the withdrawal of Eire’s UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Israel’s subsequent strikes: The nation is prone to broaden preventing in Lebanon and Gaza. Yesterday night, Israel declared a 3rd closed army zone on its border with Lebanon, banning civilians from getting into Manara, Yiftah and Malkia. Israel has additionally known as for the whole evacuation of virtually all of northern Gaza, the place 300,000 persons are estimated to stay, echoing warnings it made there all year long earlier than main offensives.

Our reporters will deliver you the latest updates from the Middle East here. We have now extra evaluation on the previous yr of escalating battle under.

• One yr on: Many Israelis have retreated inwards, feeling deserted by a world “gone loopy” that appears to care little for the hostages nonetheless in Gaza.

• A hostage’s mom: Together with her youngest daughter Doron nonetheless held captive by Hamas, Simona Steinbrecher has a plea for the remainder of the world: bring them home.

• The FT View: Twelve months of battle have left Israel no safer, its folks nonetheless traumatised and the area round it in pain and in flames, writes the editorial board.

• Hope, and a plan: In a Monetary Instances op-ed, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian international minister Nasser al-Kidwa lay out their peace proposal.

Scroll down for our Huge Learn on Netanyahu’s adept manipulation of US international coverage within the 12 months since he launched Israel’s struggle on Hamas. And right here’s what else I’m conserving tabs on as we speak:

• Financial information: Germany has August manufacturing information, whereas Halifax publishes its newest UK home worth index.

• Nobel Prize: The award in physiology or drugs shall be introduced in Sweden, marking the primary of this yr’s prizes.

• EU: Spain is ready to suggest mini-coalitions between member states in a bid to finish a decade-long stalemate over harmonising the bloc’s capital and credit score markets.

• Firms: Ferrexpo publishes its manufacturing report, whereas Shell has a quarterly replace. The BBC and different public UK broadcasters are anticipated to announce a new streaming deal with Amazon.

5 extra prime tales

1. Donald Trump’s financial plans would elevate US debt by twice as a lot as Kamala Harris’s if he have been elected, in line with an evaluation from the Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances. If the previous president wins the White Home and follows by with pledges together with tariffs, tax cuts and immigration curbs, the non-partisan group forecasts federal debt will swell by $7.5tn to 2035.

• US swing states: From a “blue wall” to the American desert, these are the locations the place the 2024 presidential race will be decided.

• ‘No extra bailouts’: A populist idea that’s good economics and good politics has been lacking from the election season, writes Ruchir Sharma.

2. Unique: US traders have stepped up funding in European defence expertise start-ups, accounting for the biggest chunk of personal capital flowing to the sector this yr amid an increase in world conflicts. Read the full story.

3. Unique: US companions at EY have been advised the agency will maintain again a few of their pay for 2024 after a troublesome monetary yr. The choice to defer 2 per cent of companions’ annual compensation was taken to assist the agency handle money movement, in line with folks accustomed to inside communications. Here’s how the company’s rank and file have reacted.

4. European households are saving at larger charges than in the course of the pre-pandemic period, in line with information that highlights a transparent divergence from extra buoyant US customers driving the worldwide financial restoration. Whereas People at the moment are comfy to “spend, spend, spend”, here’s why Europe’s consumers are more cautious.

5. The UK chancellor is predicted to spare non-public fairness bosses from the highest tax charge on this month’s Finances, as she seems to be for a compromise deal to shut tax “loopholes” that doesn’t drive traders out of Britain. Rachel Reeves advised the FT that she wouldn’t be “ideological” about taxing the rich, addeding: “We are approaching this in a responsible way.”

• Capital positive factors tax: The Institute for Fiscal Research has urged “serious reform” of the regime to make it fairer and extra growth-friendly.

• Hiring slows: A survey reveals that UK companies have put hiring on hold due to uncertainty over the federal government’s plans on tax, industrial technique and employees’ rights.

The Huge Learn

Benjamin Netanyahu way back established what army analysts name “escalation dominance” over whoever sits within the Oval Workplace. No US president has needed to disentangle from the Center East greater than Joe Biden, but no different president is extra prone to be outlined by the area. Right here’s how Israel’s chief has been, as a former Israeli diplomat put it, “running rings around Biden”.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• Non-public credit score: A fast growth in finance is coming collectively in an excitable cocktail of danger and alternative that wants urgent monitoring, writes Patrick Jenkins.

• US chips drive: Native semiconductor manufacturing has progressed since Biden’s flagship Chips and Science Act, writes Rana Foroohar. What’s next?

• Starmer’s shaky begin: After a fractious celebration convention, the UK prime minister has lastly determined to “wield the knife” and “get a grip” on his stumbling administration.

• Jane Road: Right here’s how a unusual and opaque New York agency generated internet buying and selling revenues of greater than $10bn for four consecutive years.

Chart of the day

Traders searching for returns from the buoyant American market are turning to European shares which have important US publicity however are trading at a discount to their transatlantic counterparts, fairness traders say.

Take a break from the information

“She understands her place inside tradition in a approach that so many different folks within the public eye simply don’t,” says British singer Charli XCX of Kim Kardashian. HTSI speaks to the fact queen-turned-retail mogul, whose $4bn apparel empire is moulding a brand new technology of customers.

Extra contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm.