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Once Israel ends its military campaign to destroy the Palestinian militant group Hamas, what's the future for Gaza?

While the operation could still last for months, American and Israeli officials are looking at the various options to run a post-conflict Gaza: A multinational force that includes US and possibly Arab and European troops, a peacekeeping operation modeled on the one that oversaw a 1979 Egypt-Israel treaty or putting the territory under temporary United Nations oversight.

For US President Joe Biden, who's seeking reelection next year, the idea of putting American boots on the ground, even a token force, carries particular peril, Peter Martin and Jennifer Jacobs write.

All those ideas have their drawbacks, but one thing is clear: Neither of the two protagonists in the current fighting, Israel and Hamas — designated a terrorist group by the US and the European Union — should run the enclave.

Israel had tolerated Hamas's rule over Gaza, but the militants' Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,400 people and took more than 200 hostages has fueled a drive to eliminate the group. Whether that is possible remains an open question.

Israel's retaliatory action has killed more than 8,500 people, including thousands of women and children, according to the ministry of health in Hamas-run Gaza. An overnight strike on a refugee camp that Israel said was used by Hamas as a training center drew condemnation across the Middle East.

At this point, there's little sign that the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, would be able to run Gaza even if it wanted to.

The West Bank itself is threatening to become a new front amid widespread arrests by Israel, a rising death toll and an economic slump.

For most of the world, the long-term goal is a sovereign Palestinian state governing Gaza and the West Bank in peace with neighboring Israel.

The challenge is how to get there. — Karl Maier

An Israeli soldier walks among the rubble of a house in the Nir Oz Kibbutz on Monday. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything for billionaires who prospered under President Vladimir Putin until the US and Europe imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at isolating the Kremlin leader and bringing his economy to its knees. While the restrictions have hurt their lifestyles and made them business pariahs in the West, they remain hugely wealthy.

The world economy is lumbering from one shock to another as brutal wars, stubborn inflation and high borrowing costs pockmark the post-pandemic recovery. The next source of turbulence: a packed 2024 election calendar. The year will bring 40 national elections — a busy lineup even in calmer political times.

Keir Starmer celebrates a Labour Party by-election win in Tamworth, UK, on Oct. 20. Photographer: Darren Staples/Bloomberg

Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco this month. Their encounter is likely to span issues including disputes over their economic and technological ambitions, disagreements over Taiwan and human rights, as well as broader issues such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

The assassination of Fernando Villavicencio as he campaigned to be Ecuador's president in August and a police finding that the suspects were Colombian hit men with links to gangs was enough proof for many that the state had become powerless against organized crime, Matthew Bremner reports. From 2016 to 2022, rival gangs had turned the country from one of the region's safest to one of the deadliest places on Earth.

The next UK government will have to raise taxes to a new postwar high as public services need an additional £142 billion ($172 billion) a year by 2030 just to keep them in their current weakened state. The dismal inheritance awaiting the winner of the general election, expected next year, was set out in a report by the Centre for Progressive Policy.

The US announced partial sanctions against the Myanmar junta's most lucrative state-owned enterprise, a key move to curtail the military regime's access to cash to buy weapons.

The White House warned that Biden would veto a bill proposed by House Republicans to provide assistance for Israel that would be paid for by slashing funds for the Internal Revenue Service.

A majority of judges on Brazil's top electoral court voted to declare former President Jair Bolsonaro ineligible to seek or hold public office for a second time yesterday, ruling he abused his power during last year's Independence Day celebrations.

Biden will travel to Minnesota today on a trip that underscores the conundrums he faces in his campaign for reelection.

The unity of the Democratic electorate has come under stress over his unrelenting support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Minnesota has a young, diverse Democratic base and a large number of Muslim Americans. The state is also the home of Representative Dean Phillips, who announced last week that he could challenge Biden for the party's presidential nomination. While not seen as a serious contender, Phillips has seized on worries about the economy and Biden's age. Pollsters have found that those concerns weigh on the minds of many Americans.

Republicans have longed to flip Minnesota, which has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1976. Biden holds only a narrow lead there over former President Donald Trump, according to a recent Emerson College poll.

One thing to watch today: The Treasury Department will release its quarterly borrowing plan.

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What's likely to be the hottest year on record brought never-before-seen rain to five continents, killing thousands of people and causing millions of dollars in economic losses. UN-backed scientists project that flooding will get worse as climate change accelerates.

As China pushes to challenge the US in outer space, Xi is taking a page out of the playbook NASA used for Elon Musk's SpaceX by directly supporting the involvement of local startups. The China Manned Space Agency, which yesterday returned three astronauts to Earth who had been working since May on the Tiangong space station, wants to pay private-sector companies for future missions. It hasn't yet disclosed the size or value of contracts it could award to the firms.

Astronaut Zhai Zhigang climbs out of the return capsule of the Shenzhou-13 spaceship in April 2022. Photographer: Cai Yang/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images

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