Since the Battle of New York, reconstruction had been ongoing throughout Manhattan. But due to the danger posed by alien items and the sheer extent of the damaged buildings, progress had remained slow. Tony Stark, along with the Ministry of Defence, FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Army Infectious Diseases Research Center, several insurance companies, and several top commercial law firms, had formed a reconstruction task force. This temporarily assembled, semi-official and semi-private committee spent every day identifying newly excavated alien items, determining the routes and scope of alien virus transmission, assessing losses, and negotiating compensation. Even now, areas near Avengers Tower and Grand Central Terminal remained in ruins. Since the Supreme Court had yet to rule on the responsibility of the Avengers and Tony Stark for the Battle of New York, countless private and official lawsuits were still being wrangled over.
Colonel Rhodes told him that the US Air Force had driven the New York Police Department and news media helicopters away from the vicinity of United Nations Headquarters. Tony Stark could use any means he knew to rescue the hostages. Through Colonel Rhodes, Secretary of State Ross told Tony Stark that this was a milestone in advancing the "Sokovia Accords." If Tony Stark succeeded tonight, it would help bring treaties similar to the Sokovia Accords into the spotlight in the United States and formalize the activities of Ability Enhancers on the international stage.
"The targets aren't the representatives of the UN Security Council member states, but members of the Council on Foreign Relations," Colonel Rhodes said irritably. "None of us knows why people from JPMorgan Chase and Rockefeller just happened to be at United Nations Headquarters today. Let me see the list... There's also the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, part-time