TheChek News Flow

Investors are worried about ticking time bombs on banks’ balance sheets. Warbasse Houses was one.

Amalgamated Warbasse Houses, a sprawling apartment complex blocks away from the Coney Island boardwalk, was an unlikely spark for a near panic in the banking industry earlier this year.

Few people knew it at the time, but the 1960s-era complex was a ticking time bomb buried in the balance sheet of New York Community Bancorp NYCB 0.00%increase; green up pointing triangle. When the bank revealed big losses on real-estate loans, which included Warbasse and another high-dollar property, its shares fell 60%, pulling down other lenders.

Regional banks have started to report first-quarter earnings, and investors are worried that more Warbasses will be revealed. Shares of these small and midsize banks, which are stuffed with loans for office buildings, apartment complexes and other commercial properties, are near their lowest level in five months.

NYCB’s $112 million charge-off on the Warbasse loan in last year’s fourth quarter was a surprise. Banks typically don’t disclose the names of their borrowers or how much they owe, and NYCB didn’t identify Warbasse by name in its financial disclosures, either. Clues left behind by the lender and the sheer scale of the complex’s mortgage helped unmask Warbasse.

NYCB said the loan was for a co-op and had “a unique feature that prefunded capital expenditures.” In addition, Wall Street stock analysts who had spoken with NYCB management said in their research reports that the unpaid principal balance was $275 million, which is huge for a co-op loan.

Those few details were enough to allow The Wall Street Journal to identify the borrower through a review of more than 70,000 NYCB real-estate loan records filed with the New York City Department of Finance. Details about the large capital spending at Warbasse were covered in the local real-estate press. The co-op’s identity was also confirmed by a person familiar with the matter.

NYCB spokesman Steven Bodakowski declined to comment. The other loan cited by NYCB was less unusual—a $40 million charge-off on a nonperforming loan for an office building.

There were times this year when it looked like NYCB could be on the brink and might even trigger a new regional banking crisis, less than a year after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse. NYCB had been one of the beneficiaries of last year’s brief flurry of bank failures. It acquired most of Signature Bank’s deposits and about a third of Signature’s assets from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

After its Jan. 31 earnings release, NYCB changed chief executives twice. The panic cooled after an investor group led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin provided a lifeline by injecting $1 billion of fresh capital.

Warbasse is practically a small city unto itself. It has five 24-story towers, 2,585 units, about 8,000 residents and its own power plant. It was built as affordable housing for union families by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union and the United Housing Foundation, according to the co-op’s website.

Warbasse covers almost 27 landscaped acres and has a big contingent of Russian immigrants. Brighton Beach, a Russian enclave, is a few blocks away. The complex, where a two-bedroom apartment with a terrace costs about $1,700 a month, has a waiting list to get in.

Warbasse’s age, its location near the ocean and damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 help explain the unusually large mortgage.

The co-op refinanced its mortgage in 2014, borrowing $200 million from NYCB. Half of that was set aside for capital projects, according to a September 2021 article about Warbasse by Habitat Magazine, which covers the New York co-op scene. This appears to be the “prefunded capital expenditures” referred to by the bank.

The article said the Atlantic Ocean’s “corrosive salt air, punishing winds and occasional floodwaters,” had wreaked havoc on the property over the years. Leaks got so bad that residents began referring to the co-op as “Water-basse Houses,” the article said.

An engineering firm hired by the board in 2017 found that “the whole system was at the end of its life,” Michael Silverman, the longtime co-op board president, told the magazine. “We were one step short of a complete catastrophe.”

Silverman and other co-op board members declined to comment. Warbasse has undertaken a major renovation project since then, the magazine article said.

Property records show Warbasse refinanced again in March 2022, when it took on the new $275 million mortgage from NYCB.

While the borrower and the charge-off on the loan are known, there are still some mysteries behind it. NYCB said the borrower wasn’t in default. But the way it accounted for the loan loss made it clear that NYCB had determined the loan wouldn’t be fully collectible. The bank didn’t say why.

It wasn’t clear from public records if Warbasse had an interest-only loan. The copy of its mortgage filed with the city showed the original $275 million principal amount, but not the interest rate or maturity date.

Weeks after NYCB took the loan loss that helped shatter its stock, the bank sold the loan to Bank of America, which has a large mortgage-trading desk. BofA spokesman Bill Halldin declined to comment on the bank’s plans for the Warbasse loan.

A castle outside Paris once owned by a member of the Rothschild family and, later, the King of Morocco is being shopped around quietly for a staggering €425 million (US$452 million), Mansion Global has learned.

That nine-figure price tag makes Chateau d’Armainvilliers, some 30 miles east of the Eiffel Tower, one of the world’s most expensive homes, according to Ignace Meuwissen, a luxury real estate advisor and co-founder of Whisper Auctions, which specializes in off-market luxury real estate transactions. He is handling the sale of the castle.

Chateau d’Armainvilliers, which sits on close to 2,500 acres, has a long history, beginning as a medieval stronghold in the 1100s and was later partially destroyed during the French Revolution, according to a brief history of the building on the Rothschild Archive. Notable ownership has included the noble Rochefoucauld Doudeauville family and Edmond de Rothschild, who replaced the castle and bought up additional acreage.

Much of the sprawling home’s current exterior was created during the Rothschilds’ ownership, including “its steeply-pitched roofs and timbering in the upper storeys, bears some resemblance to the English cottage style,” according to the family’s archives.

The Rothschilds sold Chateau d’Armainvilliers to King Hassan II of Morocco in the 1980s, according to Meuwissen.

The last time it changed hands was in 2008, when, following the death of King Hassan II in 1999, his son assumed ownership of the estate and sold it for €200 million, Meuwissen said.

“The property was purchased by an owner from the Middle East but has never been utilized,” Meuwissen said over email. Mansion Global couldn’t identify the owner.

The 100-room chateau boasts three floors with three elevators, five salons, 17 themed bedroom suites and state-of-the-art kitchen facilities. There’s a plethora of amenities across the estate, such as a hairdressing salon, a hammam, a private car park, stables for 50 horses, housing for staff members and 36 various parkland buildings. The chateau still retains much of the Moroccan-themed interior stylings, images show.

“The property will likely be sold behind the scenes,” said Meuwissen, who intends to share it through his network. “Most properties we sell are on a whispering basis; the properties change owners mostly confidentiality.”

Some potential clients have already expressed interest, “including one from East Europe, three from Asia and one from Mongolia,” he said.

The property “stands out due to its expansive land size and development potential,” Meuwissen said. Occupying a swath of France almost three times the size of New York City’s famous Central Park, the estate could be home to a golf course, apartments, villas and even shopping malls, he said.

Another home on the outskirts of Paris currently holds the title of the world’s most expensive, but would be dethroned if Chateau d’Armainvilliers sold for anywhere close to its asking price.

Chateau Louis XIV, located between Versailles and Marly-le-Roi, sold for more than €275 million in 2015. The owner is reportedly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir apparent to the Saudi Arabian throne.

This week there was a slowdown in big rounds raised by U.S. startups. In fact, it only took raising about $45 million to make the list. That’s still a lot of cash, but clearly round size trended down.

1. Metsera, $290M, biotech: This week was a slower week than normal for biotech — as it was for most sectors — but that didn’t stop New York-based Metsera. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical startup emerged from stealth this week with $290 million in funding led by Arch Venture Partners. The company is exploring medicines for obesity and metabolic diseases with a collection of oral and injectable incretin, nonincretin and combination therapies.

2. Rivos, $250M, semiconductor: Semiconductor startups are seeing big money, in part thanks to the explosion in generative AI. This week, Santa Clara, California-based chip startup Rivos raised more than $250 million in a Series A-3 funding led by Matrix Capital Management. The company develops power-optimized chips targeting the data analytics and generative AI markets. Of course, chip startups have seen increasing interest recently. Late last month, optical interconnectivity startup Celestial AI raised a massive $175 million Series C led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. Also last month, Astera Labs — a developer of data center connectivity technology with use cases in generative AI — soared after its initial public offering on the Nasdaq.

3. Ramp, $150M, fintech: New York-based spend management startup Ramp saw a nice bump in its valuation this week, raising a $150 million round at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion — neary 32% higher than its value in August. Last summer, the corporate card and expense automation platform raised $300 million at a $5.8 billion post-money valuation — which was actually a 28% drop from its previous valuation. The round was led by new investor Khosla Ventures and existing backer Founders Fund. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $1.8 billion, per Crunchbase.

4. Two Chairs, $72M, healthcare: Finding the right therapist can be hard, but San Francisco-based behavioral health startup Two Chairs closed a $72 million Series C to help. The round was a mix of debt and equity. The equity portion — which was not specified — was led by Amplo with Fifth Down Capital. The startup uses its own matching platform helped by its proprietary algorithm to help match the right therapist with the patient. It now has more than 500 clinicians on staff. Founded in 2017, Two Chairs has raised $103 million, per the company.

5. Cape, $61M, mobile: We are aware of the issues that telecom companies have had protecting customer information. Well, Arlington, Virginia-based Cape is hoping to fix that. The company is developing a privacy-first mobile network, and raised a $61 million round led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz. Cape’s founder and CEO, John Doyle, formerly was head of Palantir Technologies’ national security business. It’s the company’s first announced round, per Crunchbase.

6. Avive Solutions, $57M, healthcare: San Francisco-based Avive Solutions, a developer of connected automated external defibrillators, raised a $56.5 million growth equity financing led by Catalyst Health Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund and Questa Capital Management. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $90 million, per Crunchbase.

7. Asher Biotherapeutics, $55M, biotech: South San Francisco-based Asher Biotherapeutics — a biotechnology startup developing targeted immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases — had the secondest biggest biotech raise of the week. The startup closed a $55 million Series C led by RA Capital Management. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $218 million, per Crunchbase.

8. Corner Therapeutics, $54M, biotech: Watertown, Massachusetts-based Corner Therapeutics, an immunotherapy company, raised $54 million led by Ziff Capital Partners. Founded in 2020, this is the first announced round by the company, per Crunchbase.

9. Kontakt.io, $48M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Kontakt.io, which gives health systems analytics on how staff and patients move through facilities, raised a $47.5 million round led by growth equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Founded in 2013, the company has raised nearly $69 million, per Crunchbase.

10. Anvilogic, $45M, cybersecurity: Palo Alto, California-based security information and event management startup Anvilogic closed a $45 million Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners. Founded in 2019, Anvilogic has raised $85 million, per the company.

NFL prepares to give private equity green light to invest

People familiar with the matter told Scoreboard that owners are contemplating introducing a rule requiring any private equity investment to come from an NFL-focused fund, as opposed to a general sports or other investment vehicle. As a result, at least two firms are quietly tapping investors to put together NFL-specific funds ahead of the league’s green light. 

As the world’s richest professional sports league, with generous revenue-sharing agreements between clubs and a $110bn domestic media rights contract, the NFL is the lone holdout among US pro sports to the investments of institutional capital. Each of the other Big Four leagues, as well as Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, have amended bylaws since 2019 to allow for private capital stakes, hastened by a pandemic-induced liquidity crunch and skyrocketing valuations. 

But the cliquish cohort of gridiron football owners have bided their time, watching their counterparts test the private equity waters first. The result has been a drawn-out examination of purported best practices, helmed by a special committee of select owners including the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, Walmart chairman and Denver Broncos owner Greg Penner and the New England Patriots’ Bob Kraft, among others.

As a result, some of the league’s thinking is inspired by precedent in other sports, such as the fund established by Dyal HomeCourt Partners, a division of asset manager Blue Owl, specifically for NBA investments.

Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, has suggested the introduction of institutional capital investment is a matter of when, not if. (After the most recent owners meeting last month, he told reporters it could be “as early as May, probably closer to October”.)

Some of the people who spoke with Scoreboard said to expect deals to be executed with teams almost immediately after the league gives private equity the go ahead. In the meantime, everyone is getting their ducks in a row.

US sport suffers betting boom side effects

Former Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet adopted the catchphrase “bet on yourself” to describe his unlikely rise from an undrafted athlete to a National Basketball Association starter.

His teammate, Raptors power forward Jontay Porter, took that advice a bit too literally. This week, the NBA delivered its most severe punishment – a lifetime ban – to Porter, after a league investigation found that he had been wagering on basketball games this year, including limiting his own on-court performance to coincide with an acquaintance’s $80,000 wager on his stats.

The episode is effectively a nightmare scenario for US sports, which have rapidly changed tack from vehement, full-throated opposition to sports betting (in 2012, the Big Four leagues and the collegiate sports governing body sued the state of New Jersey to prevent it) to a delirious embrace of the more than $10bn industry. Now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia, sports betting has spawned a fast-growing cottage industry of wagering apps, team and league sponsorships, and betting-specific simulcasts of NBA games, where viewers can watch hosts debate evolving odds in real time.

Already, there have been questions over how much adoption of gambling culture in US sport is too much. Last summer, Shams Charania, a prominent NBA reporter for The Athletic, swung betting lines ahead of the NBA Draft when he tweeted information suggesting the Charlotte Hornets would select one player over another, information that ultimately proved false. Complicating the matter was the fact that Charania is a paid endorser for FanDuel. (FanDuel has said the company is not privy to news Charania breaks before he does so.)

And in recent weeks, Major League Baseball has been adjacent to a gambling firestorm surrounding the face of the league, two-way star Shohei Ohtani, whose now-former translator Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with bank fraud for stealing $16mn from Ohtani to cover the translator’s own illegal wagering debts.

Which is to say, an active professional athlete who is allegedly in cahoots with major bettors — and willing to log fewer minutes in service of their punts — is the worst possible outcome for leagues today. Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, said “there is nothing more important than protecting the integrity” of competition, which led to the ultimate punishment of Porter even with the league’s investigation still ongoing.

An agent for Porter did not respond to a request for comment.

Porter is not the first hooper to be hit with a ban for gambling, but he is the first to face the music since 2018, when the US federal prohibition of sports wagering was struck down. It’s a warning shot to all athletes: do not risk your millions in salary for five-figure punts.

Barring that, in case it needs to be said: if you’re going to bet on yourself, at the very least consider taking the over. 

High-speed trading firm sued hedge fund last week over lucrative options trading strategy it claims were stolen

A judge in Manhattan on Friday declined to issue a temporary restraining order against Millennium Management after Jane Street demanded the hedge fund stop using a secretive international options scheme that the high-speed trading firm counts as one of its most lucrative strategies.

US district judge Paul Engelmayer said Jane Street had not demonstrated irreparable harm since two of its former employees, Douglas Schadewald and Daniel Spottiswood, defected in February to Millennium.

Jane Street last week filed a lawsuit against the hedge fund, Schadewald and Spottiswood over the strategy, which attorneys for Millennium and the two traders on Friday said was focused on the options market in India. Jane Street sought a restraining order to stop Millennium from using the strategy or misappropriating any other trade secrets while the case proceeds.

“Jane Street has certainly identified smoke, but it has not established a fire,” Engelmayer said during a court hearing.

Jane Street and Millennium did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In previous filings, which were heavily redacted, Jane Street had tried to make the case that its undisclosed strategy needed to be kept as secret as possible. The firm went as far as asking Engelmayer to close Friday’s hearing to the public and the press, but the judge declined to do so, calling the request “borderline frivolous”.

Jane Street’s lawsuit alleges the two former employees who moved to Millennium stole trade secrets by employing a similar strategy it developed in 2023, halving its profits from trading on the strategy. An attorney for Jane Street told Engelmayer that the firm had invested “tens of millions of dollars” into the development of the trading scheme.

Attorneys for Millennium and the two traders argued that the hit to Jane Street’s profits appeared to result from outside factors such as decreased volatility and fewer trading days.

Millennium in a written rebuttal this week also said that Schadewald and Spottiswood were not using any of Jane Street’s secret strategies: “They are simply applying their knowledge and experience to trade in a market where Millennium and its affiliates have long been engaged in trading activity (including in options) and has established relationships with relevant brokers and other third-parties.”

Founded in 2000, Jane Street has grown into an increasingly powerful trading firm and market maker for the $8.9tn US exchange traded fund industry. The firm has said it has never sued a former employee before this lawsuit.

Millennium, which was founded in 1989 by Izzy Englander, has grown to become one of the most prominent multi-manager hedge funds in the world, with about $63bn in assets under management and average returns of about 14 per cent a year.

Engelmayer said he expected to set a trial in the case for the week of July 15.

Step could upend fragile talks to free Israeli hostages

DUBAI—Hamas’s political leadership is looking to move from its current base in Qatar, as U.S. legislators build pressure on the Gulf state to deliver on cease-fire negotiations that look likely to fail.

If Hamas left Qatar, the move could upend delicate talks to free dozens of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza and likely make it more difficult for Israel and the U.S. to pass messages to a group designated by Washington as a terrorist organization. Hamas leaders have lived in Doha, the Qatari capital, since 2012 in an arrangement supported by the U.S.

Arab officials said that in recent days the group has contacted at least two countries in the region asking if they would be open to the idea of its political leaders relocating to their capitals. Oman is one of the countries that was contacted, one Arab official said. Omani officials didn’t respond to a request for comment. Arab officials said Hamas believes the slow-moving hostage negotiations could last for months, putting the group’s close ties to Qatar and its presence in Doha at risk.

“The talks have already stalled again with barely any signs or prospects for them to resume any time soon, and distrust is rising between Hamas and the negotiators,” said an Arab mediator familiar with the situation.

In recent weeks, mediators from Qatar and Egypt have pressured Hamas representatives to get the group to soften its conditions. At times, Hamas leadership received threats of expulsion if it failed to agree to a deal releasing hostages.

“The possibility of the talks being upended entirely is very real,” said another Arab mediator.

Qatar, a Persian Gulf monarchy the size of Connecticut, has long worked to end Gaza wars and boost aid to Palestinians, building trust with the combatants and familiarity with their negotiating tactics. In the past six months, it has brought those relationships to bear on one of the world’s thorniest diplomatic crises, demonstrating its value as a U.S. ally while raising its profile as the Middle East’s indispensable mediator.

But Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, recently said the Gulf state was reassessing its role as mediator between Israel and Hamas. He cited what he said was unfair criticism of Qatar’s efforts to end the war in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said pressure should be applied on Qatar, which played a significant role in mediating November’s truce and prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.

“There are limits to this role and limits to the ability to which we can contribute to these negotiations in a constructive way,” the Qatari leader said at a news conference. “The state of Qatar will make the appropriate decision at the right time.”

Never before has Qatar’s decadelong relationship with Hamas, which is committed to violent resistance to Israeli occupation, come under such scrutiny. The attacks on Oct. 7, when Gaza militants, according to Israeli authorities, killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped over 200 others, have raised suggestions in Israel that Qatar might have been partly responsible because of its ties with Hamas.

Some U.S. lawmakers and Israeli politicians have for months called on the White House to force Qatar to cut ties with Hamas and face punitive action for what they say amounts to support for terrorism.

Qatari and U.S. officials deny the terrorism allegations. They say Qatar has coordinated with Israel on its previous engagements with Hamas, and Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, has praised Qatar’s recent diplomacy following the Oct. 7 attacks.

The officials say Hamas political leaders are in Doha at Washington’s request and would otherwise end up in a location where it is harder for Western officials to communicate with them, such as Iran or Syria. Qatar’s ability to engage with Hamas is crucial, since U.S. and European officials are prevented from contacting them directly by their governments’ classification of the group as a terrorist organization.

Israel and Hamas remain far apart on issues such as when Israeli forces would leave Gaza and how many Palestinians forced from their homes by Israeli evacuation orders will be able to return, the officials said. Hamas has also said it is unsure whether it could produce 40 Israeli civilian captives as part of a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal. That stance has complicated talks toward a possible cease-fire in the six-month-old war that has left much of Gaza in ruins, according to Arab officials familiar with the negotiations.

Health officials in Gaza say more than 33,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed there since the start of the war, without distinguishing between civilians and militants.

Israel and Hamas have rejected various proposals made through Egypt and Qatar following the end of the last cease-fire on Nov. 30, though they have previously largely agreed on a framework that includes several phases and a potential long-term cease-fire.

Qatar’s ability to maintain ties with Hamas—as it does with other radical groups such as the Taliban and states including Iran and Venezuela—reflects a difficult balancing act in a world in which the U.S. increasingly demands that its friends take unequivocal stances with it and against an array of enemies. This hereditary monarchy hosts one of America’s largest foreign military bases.

Pressure from U.S. legislators has been building on Qatar to extract more concessions from Hamas or sever ties with the organization.

Earlier this month, Sen. Ted Budd (R., N.C.) introduced a bill to consider terminating Qatar’s status as a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally unless it expelled all Hamas members or agreed to extradite them to the U.S. The status, which opens the door to more military exercises, joint operations and potential arms sales, was granted by President Biden in 2022 after Qatar helped facilitate the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan.

“Failure to take action against Hamas is beginning to look like tacit support for a foreign terrorist organization designated by the United States,” Budd said in a statement.

The Qatari Embassy in Washington called the bill disappointing and unhelpful. “Especially in this delicate moment in our region, it is reckless to undermine the partnerships that America and its allies have built carefully over decades,” it said in a statement.

Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, objected to the bill, saying that while it is uncomfortable for an ally to have a relationship with Hamas, kicking its leaders out of Doha would guarantee that the hostages are never released because there would be no alternative negotiating channel. He said the bill would endanger U.S. interests in the Middle East, predicting that such a move would have an impact on America’s base in Qatar and the Gulf state’s purchases of U.S. arms.

“They are an imperfect ally,” Murphy said. “This is a repressive regime with a bad history on human rights and worker rights, but they are a critical ally.”

He said Qatar hosted Hamas after a request from the U.S. in 2012, later sent money to Hamas at Israel’s request and helped negotiate cease-fires over the past decade.

Israeli officials have for months been lobbying Egypt, which communicates directly with Hamas’s military wing and often with its political leadership, to take a bigger role in hostage talks, citing concern that Qatar wasn’t putting enough pressure on Hamas in Doha.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), the former Democratic leader in the House, said in recent days that Qatar should pressure Hamas to release the hostages by cutting off funding to the group or kicking its political leaders out of Doha. “If Qatar fails to apply this pressure, the United States must re-evaluate its relationship with Qatar,” he said in a statement.

The Qatari Embassy in Washington responded by saying Doha is “only a mediator” and that Israel and Hamas are entirely responsible for reaching an agreement. It said that Qatar is frustrated by the slow progress of the talks and is tempted to walk away from them, but that it isn’t giving up on freeing the hostages.

A U.S. official said the Qataris have been clear that when the U.S. wants to have a conversation about ending Hamas’s presence in Doha, Qatar would be ready “to do what’s best” for the bilateral relationship.

Many Israelis fear Qatar’s relationship with Hamas could thwart attempts to destroy the group. Some say that Qatar’s humanitarian aid helps Hamas, even if unintentionally, by freeing the group to spend its money on militant activities.

The Qataris say Hamas trusts them because they have no direct stake in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their backing of other Islamist groups during the Arab Spring uprisings bolstered credibility with Hamas, according to regional analysts, while Doha-based Al Jazeera television provides sympathetic coverage of the Palestinian cause and amplifies the group’s messaging.

A U.S. official said earlier this year that Qatar has used its relationship and ability to speak with Hamas to urge the group toward a reasonable position to advance the negotiations with Israel but that the split between Hamas’s political leadership in Doha and military leadership in Gaza made it difficult to achieve results.

“Our priority is the hostages, especially the American hostages, and we understand that to gain their freedom, it’s important that Qatar be able to have a conversation with Hamas,” said the official. “I don’t think that anyone believes there’s a future for Hamas in Doha. The Qataris understand and are not clamoring for Hamas to stay or be there.”