And American cinema icon Robert Redford has died.
Happy Wednesday and welcome to your morning wrap of the latest political and business headlines from around the world.
First up, the Israeli military has begun its ground offensive in Gaza City as thousands of Palestinians fled in vehicles strapped with mattresses and other belongings that clogged a coastal road, Associated Press reported.
“Gaza is burning,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz declared as the operation began. Heavy bombardment pounded the city overnight, and troops began moving in from the outskirts after weeks of airstrikes and a buildup toward the renewed assault.
Palestinian residents have reported heavy strikes across the city, with hospitals in the city saying there have been at least 69 deaths.
“A very tough night in Gaza,” Shifa Hospital director Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya said. “The bombing did not stop for a single moment.”
As CNN reported, the assault was launched the same day the United Nations released an inquiry which concluded for the first time that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the enclave and that the country’s top leaders have incited genocide, in what it described as the “most authoritative UN finding to date”.
It said the acts included the killing of Palestinians, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life that are designed to bring about its destruction, and imposing measures to prevent births.
The Israeli government, in its response, maintained the war was in self-defence following Hamas’ attack in 2023, was in accordance with international law, and that the report relied “entirely on Hamas falsehoods”.
“Israel categorically rejects the distorted and false report and calls for the immediate abolition of the Commission of Inquiry,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
In other news, the man accused of shooting right-wing influencer and US President Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk has been formally charged with aggravated murder and may face the death penalty, Reuters reported.
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray announced that Tyler Robinson faces seven charges related to the death of Kirk, who was shot at a campus event last week, and will potentially face the death penalty.
“I do not take this decision lightly, and it is a decision I have made independently as county attorney, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime,” Gray said.
The charging documents filed by Utah authorities show the suspect told his roommate he killed Kirk because he had had “enough of his hatred”; had planned the crime for over a week; his mother suspected he was responsible; and that a family friend met with the suspect and his parents and convinced him to turn himself in.
Robinson will appear before a judge today for his first appearance.
CCTV footage released by the FBI of the man they believe killed Charlie Kirk. (Source: Wikimedia Commons.)
Staying in the United States, the BBC reported that a federal appeals court has ruled that Trump cannot oust Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook from her role, and she will be able to take part in this week’s interest rate meeting.
Trump announced in August he was firing Cook for allegedly committing mortgage fraud. Cook denied the allegations and said the president had no authority to dismiss her.
His administration has signalled it plans to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.
In business news, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Trump’s suggestion to scrap quarterly earnings reports for companies will be a win for investors.
In a post earlier this week on social media, Trump said the move would allow company executives to focus on long-term goals rather than fixate on short-term metrics.
“President Trump realises that whether it’s the UK, [or] it is the US, our public markets are atrophying, and this might be one way to bring back and cut costs for public companies without harming investors,” Bessent said.
The president also suggested that scrapping quarterly reports in favour of semi-annual reporting would bring the US into line with many other foreign jurisdictions.
Scott Bessent.
In European market news, Germany’s largest steelmaker, Thyssenkrupp, has received a non-binding bid for its steel unit from a division of Indian conglomerate Naveen Jindal Group, Reuters reported.
The bid sent Thyssenkrupp’s shares up as much as 7.9% to their highest level in more than four years.
The company said it would closely examine the offer but did not provide any financial details. The German firm, which generated €10.7 billion in sales last year, has long been seeking to dispose of its steel unit as it wants to become a leaner business.
Finally this morning, American cinema icon Robert Redford has died aged 89, The Guardian reported.
His publicist said he died at his home in the mountains of Utah.
Redford was one of the defining movie stars of the 1970s, starring in films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men. He later went on to co-found the Sundance Film Festival.
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