The Israeli airstrike on the Qatari capital Doha is a step change in the way they tackle their enemies, but only the latest in a series of them.

In the past, Israel used stealthier means to dispatch its foes. Plausible deniability was preferable.

October 7 changed everything, the Israelis say.

So when they came for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in 2024 in the Iranian capital of Tehran, they didn’t bother with anything as subtle as poison or strangulation – they blew him up with an airstrike instead.

Now it’s launched another one, this time not on a city in a country that’s hostile to Israel, but one it has relations with, to the horror of the region and massive diplomatic fallout.

You might assume the targets were high value, a clear and present threat to Israel, to justify all that. Not exactly.

There are plenty of reasons for Israelis to hate the old men of Hamas, whom they appear to have targeted. In the past, some of them were instrumental in organising terrorist attacks that killed many innocent women and children.

Follow the latest: Hamas leadership ‘survives Israeli strikes on Doha’

They will have cheered on the 7 October atrocities, but so far as we know, they were not its primary masterminds.

Hamas’ Doha office

In 2011, the US government persuaded the Qataris to let Hamas open a political office in Doha, and the Israelis approved of the idea.

Everyone wanted an address to negotiate with and funnel millions of dollars through to Gaza.

In the words of one Israeli official: “We believe that better conditions in Gaza would lessen the incentive of Hamas and the population to go again to a war. So in a way, it is helping the deterrence.”

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Critics of Benjamin Netanyahu said he was deliberately strengthening one wing of Palestinian politics as part of a cynical policy of divide and rule.

For whatever reason, Israel acquiesced fully in the Hamas political office being set up in Doha. It was staffed with some of the veterans of its cause who seem to have been on the target list in this strike.

When I interviewed Khaled Meshaal in Doha in October 2023, he was determined and dogmatic, but seemed at one stage removed.

He was no longer the ideological godfather of the movement, he clearly had been when I first met him in Damascus in 2017.

The hard men of Gaza – Yahya Sinwar, Abu Obeida, Muhammad Deif – were in control now, much more than those languishing in exile.

Hard to see how strikes help hostages in Gaza

Mr Netanyahu will have had his reasons for today’s strikes.

He has almost certainly been waiting for another chance to kill Meshaal after his first attempt failed so spectacularly.

Read more from Sky News:
Israel launches strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha
Man arrested after Heathrow Airport incident

In 1997, he sent Mossad agents to pour a lethal poison into his ear in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

They botched the job, and King Hussein told then-US president Bill Clinton to order the Israeli leader to hand over an antidote that saved him.

Initial reports suggest the wily Meshaal escaped the latest attempt on his life, too.

But the men killed and targeted today were, for all their faults, the people Israel was indirectly talking to try to negotiate the return of their hostages.

It is hard to see how this helps their plight now.

Eco Wave Power held a grand opening for the first onshore wave power station in the US today, at the Port of Los Angeles. The station is just a pilot so far, but Eco Wave Power has big aspirations.

The station is on the site of AltaSea, an “ocean technology hub” in a warehouse at the Port of LA.

The idea behind wave power is to use motion of waves in the ocean to generate electricity. Waves are relatively constant, and hold more power than wind, given that water is so much denser than air. They also add another dimension to renewable power generation, which can help reduce intermittency.

However, wave power has been considered for centuries and has been tried several times, with little evidence yet of its scalability. The industry, such as it is, is definitely still in the development stage. So this pilot program has a big hill to climb if it’s going to succeed as a demonstration.

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Eco Wave Power’s project is rather humble for now, consisting of seven blue painted buoys, which the company calls “floaters,” approximately in the shape of boats. The floaters are designed to lift and drop with the waves, driving a hydraulic ram to create pressure in a bank of storage tanks in a nearby shipping container (the “conversion unit”), which is then used to spin a turbine generator.

The project will run for two years, though it’s still primarily for demonstration and research purposes. Ocean environments are caustic and chaotic, so there are a lot of problems that could come up. But Eco Wave Power has tried to mitigate one of the potential problems by using biodegradeable hydraulic fluid, just in case there’s any sort of leak.

There could be potential terawatts of power generation available from wave power nationwide, but that would require deployment over much of the US coastline. Eco Wave Power says it could power 60,000 homes with a larger deployment, taking up around 8 miles of breakwater structures built around the Port of LA/Long Beach complex. The system is designed to be modular, so that more floaters and shipping containers could be added depending on the available area.

Alternately, the power could be used to help fuel the port itself. Ports tend to be dirty areas, and Long Beach/LA is no difference. Air quality in the area is quite poor, which is why the port is rushing to clean up pollution. Wave power could provide some onsite power for port operations, and perhaps help to run electrified port equipment.

And if the project were big enough to export power beyond the port, the benefit of being in a port is that there are always nearby electrical substations, so it’s not hard to find a grid connection.

But as of now, we’ve got 7 floaters to start.

Currently, the floaters are placed inside the breakwater, in the channel that is protected from ocean waves. Therefore, they’re not going to generate nearly as much power as if they were placed on the outside of the breakwater itself, where waves are larger, more consistent, and much more powerful. But this is a test project, after all.

At the opening event, minutes after the floaters were dropped into the water, we saw them turn the system on and generate… 1.6kW worth of power. It’s a pretty calm day, after all, and the system hadn’t really had time to build up any pressure.

Eco Wave Power says that a setup of this size could have a potential output of 100kW, though we did get some conflicting numbers on that, and we suspect the numbers change drastically based on positioning and water conditions. It has one grid-connected power station in Israel which has been operational for a few months now, but we asked how much energy it has produced, and the company said that it had not released that information yet.

The new LA station is actually the first onshore wave power station in the US, though there has previously been an offshore wave power pilot in Hawaii. There are benefits and downsides to each method, but onshore is cheaper to install and maintain, if you can get access to the shoreline needed – and port breakwaters are a good opportunity for that.

Eco Wave Power says it also has projects in Taiwan, India and Portugal coming soon. It formerly operated a pilot program in Gibraltar. Its projects so far have been in relatively protected areas (Israel and Gibraltar are both on the Mediterranean, and LA is inside the port), but it has future projects coming that will be exposed to the ocean, like in Taiwan and Portugal, which should offer a whole new set of challenges – and unlock much more power, if the company is able to harness the turbulence of the Pacific.

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We knew there were more in the works. After the electric SUV and sedan, starting at about $50,000, Lucid (LCID) confirmed it will launch a third midsize EV. Here’s what it will look like.

Lucid confirms the third $50,000 midsize EV

Former CEO, Peter Rawlinson, promised over two years ago that Lucid would “drive down the costs of EVs” with new battery, powertrain, and other advanced EV technologies.

The Air, Lucid’s first model, is already significantly less expensive than when it first launched. In 2021, Lucid introduced the Lucid Air Dream Edition, which started at $169,000.

Today, you can snag a 2025 Lucid Air for under $70,000, and this is just the start. Lucid is planning an entirely new platform to power a new family of midsize electric vehicles that will start at around $50,000. According to Rawlinson, Lucid’s midsize models are aimed “right in the heart of Tesla Model 3, Model Y territory.”

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Lucid told Electrek last year that the company planned to launch three new midsize EVs on the platform: an electric midsize crossover, sedan, and a third vehicle that remained a mystery, until now.

Speaking at the Munich Motor Show this week, Lucid’s interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, confirmed the third $50,000 EV will be based on the Gravity X concept.

Lucid unveiled the Gravity X (pronounced Gravity Cross) last month, an all-terrain, souped-up version of its electric SUV.

The concept was loaded with off-road upgrades and other goodies like all-terrain tires, a lifted suspension, tow hooks, and a widened, more aggressive stance. It also featured a unique new roof rack system with built-in LED lights.

On the inside, Lucid added premium leather seats, high-performance floor mats, a microsuede steering wheel, and a few other upgrades for off-road adventures.

Lucid said every detail was intentional, suggesting we could see the concept arrive in production form. Now, it has been confirmed.

Winterhoff also confirmed at the event that Lucid has the funding “to get us into the second half of next year,” when the company plans to begin production on the midsize platform. Lucid will ramp up output of the standard midsize SUV first, “so that tells you that additional funds will be needed to get there,” Winterhoff added.

If everything goes according to plan, the rugged midsize SUV will likely arrive sometime in early 2027, followed by the sedan shortly after. According to Car and Driver, Lucid may also offer the midsize platform for fleets, using its Gravity robotaxis through its partnership with Uber.

When it arrives, Lucid’s rugged new midsize SUV will likely go head-to-head with the Rivian R2/R3, Jeep Recon, Scout Terra, and a few others set to hit the market over the next few years.

What are your thoughts on an electric midsize Lucid off-roader? Would you buy one for around $50,000? Rivian aims to launch the R2 at around $45,000, but an off-road version (“X”) will likely cost slightly more. Which one are you taking?