| British News |
| UK PM Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Trump’s chief of staff |
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New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, several media outlets report. According to Politico, which broke the story quoting anonymous sources, the British leader sent a “few messages” via an unspecified communication channel to a person he believed to be Wiles before becoming suspicious. The incident was deemed serious enough for the British embassy in Washington to raise the matter with the White House, according to two sources cited by Politico. Neither the date nor the content of the exchanges is known. Burnham succeeded former Labour Party leader Keir Starmer as prime minister on July 20. “We do not comment on national security matters,” a spokesperson for Burnham’s Downing Street office says, without denying the exchanges. Burnham is not the first prominent British politician to fall victim to this type of hoax. In 2024, the British government released a video of a phone call in which then-foreign minister David Cameron was duped by someone posing as former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. The Foreign Office explained at the time that it had disclosed the incident to preempt any attempt by the perpetrators to manipulate the footage. |
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| World News |
| Contradicting Vance, Trump vows ‘number one goal’ is stopping Iran going nuclear |
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In an early-morning post, US President Donald Trump vows that the US’s top priority is to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon. “The number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump writes. His words appear to be a direct contradiction to US Vice President JD Vance’s comments last week that the US’s top goal is to lower gas prices for Americans, and only the second priority is preventing Iran from going nuclear. |
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| Israel News |
| Man arrested for vandalizing St. Anthony’s Church in Jaffa |
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A man in his 20s has been arrested for alleged vandalism of the St. Anthony of Padua Church in the Jaffa neighborhood of Tel Aviv. According to police, a report was filed yesterday morning about the damage at the church, where several statues had been smashed and a number of crosses broken. Police say they were able to identify the suspect and arrested him a short while ago. He has been transferred to police for questioning. Reports have found growing levels of harassment against Christians in Israel by extremists in recent years. |
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| PM’s office says he agrees to form ‘working groups’ on Gaza demilitarization, humanitarian needs |
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to establish two working groups focused on Gaza’s demilitarization and humanitarian needs during a meeting today with a group of envoys from the White House and the US-backed Board of Peace, his office says. A Board of Peace official praises the meeting, saying that it means Israel will give “a chance” to the US-backed plan to disarm Hamas and have the IDF withdraw from the Strip. Netanyahu met US President Donald Trump’s top envoy Jared Kushner and senior Board of Peace officials Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, according to a brief readout from the Prime Minister’s Office. “The Prime Minister and Board of Peace had deep and constructive discussions,” the statement reads. “It was agreed to establish two working groups, one on disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza, which both Israel and the Board of Peace are determined should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza,” the PMO says. “A second working group will focus on sanitation, clean water and other public health issues for the people of Gaza and which also impact the people of Israel,” the statement concludes. The PMO does not elaborate on the composition of the working groups or provide a timeline for their work. In a separate statement, a Board of Peace official says the meeting was “lengthy, in depth, and very productive.” “We agreed with the PM on a path forward. The Israelis are going to give this a chance. Now it’s up to Hamas to show if it truly intends to comply,” the official says. Today’s meeting, which ran from late morning until mid-afternoon, followed Kushner’s talks with Hamas officials in Cairo, as the Board works to advance the disarmament plan. Hamas has said it accepted the framework, which envisions the group gradually handing over its weapons, as Israel conducts corresponding withdrawals from Gaza. Netanyahu has rejected the Board of Peace proposal, insisting that the terror group fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawals from the Strip. The PMO does not say who participated in the meeting alongside Netanyahu. |
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| Palestinian man arrested for digging tunnel meant to infiltrate Israel from West Bank |
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Police announce the arrest of a Palestinian man suspected of digging a tunnel that was supposed to lead from the central West Bank into Israel. Border Police surveillance identified a group of people digging the tunnel adjacent to the security barrier near the West Bank’s Qalandiya refugee camp, police say. Officers were dispatched to the scene, and as they approached, the diggers fled, according to police. The officers chased the diggers and managed to catch one, a 36-year-old Qalandiya resident, police say, adding that the officers fired shots during the chase. In a preliminary investigation, the suspect led officers to the tunnel, where they found “digging implements and many buckets,” and he admitted the tunnel was dug “with the aim of infiltrating the territory of the State of Israel,” police say. Police add that they expect to detain more suspects. Hebrew media outlets report police are still looking for two other suspects. According to the reports, the mouth of the tunnel was about 15 meters (50 feet) from the security barrier and was meant to serve as a conduit for Palestinians to illegally enter Israel from the West Bank. Police had also announced in June that officers arrested a West Bank Palestinian and a resident of East Jerusalem on suspicion of digging a tunnel to either carry out terror attacks or aid the illegal entry of Palestinian workers into Israel. Following the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, Israel all but ended the entry of Palestinian laborers into Israel, gutting a major source of income for the Palestinian economy and leading some to risk crossing the barrier illegally in search for work. |
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