WASHINGTON — A military court will try the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks starting in June 2028, multiple US media outlets report, citing a judge’s ruling.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was considered one of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants before he was captured in March 2003 in Pakistan.
He was imprisoned in secret CIA facilities for three years before arriving at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2006.
The Food and Drug Administration approves a groundbreaking new drug for advanced pancreatic cancer, offering US patients a more effective treatment against one of the deadliest types of cancer.
FDA officials give expedited approval to the first-of-a-kind pill, called daraxonrasib, which blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. It’s an approach that previously eluded drugmakers for decades.
The daily pills will be sold by Revolution Medicines under the brand name Rasonque. A one-month supply would cost approximately $39,800, the company announced.
Patients taking the drug nearly doubled their survival time, with fewer severe side effects, in a study that randomly assigned them to receive the experimental treatment or more chemotherapy. The company-funded study enrolled 500 patients whose metastatic, or spreading, cancer had quit responding to prior treatment.
Patients getting the new treatment lived for a median of 13.2 months compared with 6.7 months for chemotherapy recipients. Side effects included skin rash, mouth sores, diarrhea, and other digestive issues.
“This is one of the most anticipated approvals I can think of,” Dr. Andrew Coveler of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center says. “This medicine is not a cure but a significant improvement.”
Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest forms in large part because it is hard to detect before it starts spreading to other organs. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 67,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the United States this year and more than 52,000 people will die from the disease. The five-year overall survival rate is 13%.
CAEN, France — A man drove a car into a crowd in the northwestern French city of Caen, killing one person and injuring 10 others, firefighters and police say.
A police source says the man rammed the car into the crowd near the city’s train station after a fight in the area, and one suspect was arrested.
Firefighters say one of the victims died, four were seriously injured, and six were lightly hurt.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, says in an interview that she fears the state’s Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, is rationalizing terrorism and that the party is ostracizing Jews.
After a terrorist attempted an attack earlier this year against a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan — Nessel’s hometown — El-Sayed linked the attack to the conflict in Lebanon and said, “Hurt people hurt people.”
“A lot of us perceived that as sort of making excuses for someone that sought to murder over 100 pre-K schoolchildren and that’s the kind of mentality that bothers me a lot,” Nessel tells The Atlantic’s David Frum.
Nessel noted that El-Sayed had met with Jewish leaders, but had not walked back the comments and “it has me concerned that he really stands by them.”
“I don’t think we should ever be making those kinds of excuses and in a way propping up people who seek to commit these crimes,” Nessel says. “It possibly encourages other people to do the same. They want to be a hero too.”
Nessel says she has spoken to El-Sayed about the comments and holds out hope that he will retract the statements, but that he has exhibited “a real dearth of historical knowledge, political knowledge and religious knowledge” about Jews and Israel.
Nessel tells Frum that Jews in Michigan are torn in El-Sayed’s race against Republican Mike Rogers, which could determine control of the Senate.
“We absolutely don’t want Mike Rogers to win. We absolutely want a Democratic majority in the Senate,” she says. “But is Abdul going to spend six years railing against Israel irrespective of who the government is there?”
She says the concern is that the rhetoric is stoking antisemitism, and that she regularly receives antisemitic death threats from both the left and right.
Nessel has previously said she will not attend Michigan’s upcoming party nominating convention due to antisemitism.
She tells Frum that, for many Democrats, there are “good Jews” who are anti-Zionist, and “bad Jews” who believe in their connection to Israel. She adds that she believes the Republican Party is also unwelcome to Jews and she will not vote for Rogers.
“We have been an essential part of the fabric of the Democratic Party for a very, very long time. I would ask the leadership and members of this party to consider that before they do or say things that will force us to leave,” Nessel says. “I was Jewish before I was ever a member of the Democratic Party, and if I have to, I’ll be Jewish afterwards too.”
Meta agrees to pay a coalition of US states as much as $16.7 billion and to impose sweeping new limits on how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram, according to a court filing that ends a landmark trial in California.
The proposed settlement, filed in federal court, would resolve claims by 29 states that Meta deliberately engineered its platforms to hook young users, misled the public about the risks and unlawfully collected data from children under 13.
The changes to how young people use its apps go further than anything Meta has accepted before, and follow years of criticism from parents and experts over the effects of the world’s biggest social media platforms on children.
Anger over the impact of Instagram and Facebook — as well as rival apps like Snapchat and TikTok — has driven the spread of age limits and school phone bans around the world.
Despite the settlement, in the United States, Meta still faces thousands of personal injury claims and litigation from school districts, none of which the agreement covers.
The case by the 29 states was among the most far-reaching, with Meta warning that a courtroom loss could have exposed it to more than $1 trillion in penalties.
A 35-year-old man with a full-scale guillotine in the bed of his pickup truck has been arrested in Washington, police say.
Philan-Tam-Duy Le was taken into custody yesterday and charged with “carrying a dangerous weapon,” the US Capitol Police say in a statement.
Le’s pickup truck was illegally parked on a street near the US Supreme Court building and the US Capitol at the time of his arrest.
Police say they seized the guillotine. It was not clear if it was operational.
Le is from Julian, California, and drove to the nation’s capital, police say.
“Investigators are going through the suspect’s background to learn more about why he came to Washington,” they say.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will visit Tehran tomorrow, where he will meet a number of Iranian officials to discuss ways to de-escalate tensions, foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari says on Wednesday on X.
Qatar has been one of the key mediators working toward a lasting ceasefire in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Soldiers in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion refused to enter an armored personnel carrier in the Gaza Strip for operational activity because a female paramedic was attached to the force.
As a result, the mission last night was canceled, according to the army.
The incident is the latest in a series of cases of Orthodox soldiers refusing to interact with servicewomen in the army due to their religious sensibilities.
The Rotem Battalion is not a Haredi unit, and therefore the soldiers serving there, under the IDF’s protocols, may have to serve alongside women.
The IDF says that “soldiers who maintain a religious lifestyle are entitled to carry out operational activity within a gender-segregated framework, except in exceptional cases.”
“The force refused to carry out the operational activity, and as a result, the activity was canceled,” the military says.
The IDF says the incident is under further investigation and “command measures will be taken in accordance with its findings.”
Spyware designed to eavesdrop and extract sensitive political and strategic information has been discovered on the phones of two senior officials in Gadi Eisenkot’s election campaign, Channel 12 reports.
Due to the sensitivity of the information handled by the campaign, Eisenkot’s headquarters in recent weeks implemented a strict security protocol including daily cybersecurity checks and phone scans for some campaign staffers, including its most senior officials.
The malicious software was discovered in two separate cases during those scans, which were conducted by a private security firm hired by the campaign, according to the report. Eisenkot’s own devices were not compromised, the report says.
Despite the apparent breaches, Eisenkot’s campaign has not filed a complaint with the police, instead opting to bolster its cybersecurity measures and continue conducting daily scans of senior officials’ devices, the Hebrew network says.
Channel 12 does not report who may have been responsible for installing the spyware or when the devices were compromised.
Iran’s armed forces say that several Persian-language media outlets operating abroad are included in its “military target bank,” accusing them of working for US and Israeli intelligence agencies.
In remarks published on state television, armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi names BBC Persian, Iran International and Radio Farda among the outlets.
“These hostile media outlets are the soldiers of Zionism and America and are included in our military target bank,” Shekarchi says, accusing them of being “directly connected to Mossad, CIA and enemy intelligence organizations.”
“The Iranian Armed Forces do not view these news outlets as media,” he adds.
He does not clarify where they would be targeted.
Iranian authorities have frequently accused Persian-language media outlets based abroad of cooperating with Israel.
Iran has designated Iran International as a terrorist organization since 2022 and has warned that cooperation with the channel is punishable under Iranian law.
Arabic media airs footage from earlier today showing Israeli settlers allegedly stealing belongings from a Palestinian home in the southern West Bank.
لحظة قيام عدد من المستوطنين بسرقة ممتلكات من منزل فلسطيني في مسافر يطا جنوب الخليل بالضفة الغربية#فيديو pic.twitter.com/hEMkkYvBes
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) August 26, 2026
A settler is seen apparently grabbing belongings from a Palestinian home in Masafer Yatta and loading them onto an ATV, which appears to be identical to the ones the government gifted to residents of illegal Israeli outposts last year.
The clip then catches the settlers driving off in the ATV. There are no reports of any arrests, which are rare in instances of settler harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The violence and harassment faced by residents of Masafer Yatta was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz reportedly met today with Unity party chief Gilad Erdan as part of ongoing contacts between the two parties, Channel 12 reports.
According to national broadcaster Kan, the two have recently been in touch regarding a potential merger ahead of the October 27 election. Both parties, neither of which has passed the electoral threshold in several polls, are part of the so-called third bloc of center-right parties that aim to force a compromise between the two larger blocs in order to create a broad Zionist unity government.
In a post on Telegram, Israel Hayom political reporter Bini Aschkenasy says the meeting came after two weeks of texting between Gantz and Erdan, and ended well, with both sides agreeing to another sit-down soon.
Speaking with The Times of Israel this morning, Erdan’s political partner Yuli Edelstein said there are “no ongoing… negotiations right now because unfortunately, as we all know, in politics for some reason everything [is delayed until] the end of the game, and I’m sure that the serious contacts will be somewhere in the beginning of September, and the agreements will be signed in the best case on September 6.”
The deadline for parties to submit their official electoral slates is September 8.
However, Edelstein said, “it doesn’t mean that we can’t talk to each other or write to each other or meet each other for a cup of coffee, but the negotiations, I’m honestly telling you, will happen in a week from now, something like that. Not just us, all the parties will really start talking when push comes to shove.”
People of Israel chairman Ofer Winter slams Yashar chairman and former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot as they trade barbs about sitting in a potential future coalition together.
Eisenkot tells Channel 13 in an interview that he would not appoint the controversial former general as defense minister in a future government: “I think Ofer Winter is a good field commander. He was not part of the IDF’s strategic leadership command, nor did he hold senior roles.”
Hitting back in a video sent to reporters, Winter replies to Eisenkot that he has “already said that I have no intention of being part of your government, and I will do everything to ensure it does not come to fruition.”
“For years, I have opposed the security concept you led,” Winter says, arguing that “a strategic perceptual chasm lies between us.”
Winter has been the subject of controversy for more than a decade, and was released from the military in 2024 after being passed over for promotion.
Dimona Mayor Benny Bitton says in an interview with Channel 12 news tonight that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to offer Winter a guaranteed spot on the Likud list weeks ago, but Winter refused to answer calls from Netanyahu’s office.
Winter, who said after the October 7 Hamas invasion that he would resign if he were prime minister, said at his campaign launch last night that the political arena must not remain unchanged in the wake of October 7.
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan requests government security protection following what he describes as threats against his life, the Walla news site reports.
Writing to Central Elections Committee chairman Noam Sohlberg and Shin Bet chief David Zini, Golan reportedly cites a number of social media posts calling for him to receive “a bullet to the head” and talking about his “grave.”
One post calls to “gouge out” his eyes, claiming that he and his family deserve to be hanged because he “caused a second Holocaust to the Jewish people.”
Walla cites a party spokesperson as saying that “the police raised the threat assessment level for” Golan to level 4, and it demands security for him “against the backdrop of threats to his life.”
According to Channel 12, the Shin Bet on Monday allowed Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot’s private guards to carry weapons, in an apparent compromise after the security agency turned down a request to provide an official security detail for the election frontrunner.
The decision by Zini, chief of the domestic security agency, came as concern has risen across the ideological spectrum about political violence ahead of the October 27 election. His initial denial of Eisenkot’s security also sparked sharp criticism from opposition politicians.
The Israel Meteorological Service issues a warning of “extremely unusual” and “unprecedented” rainfall expected this weekend that could cause flooding and other disruptions.
“We are likely to experience a highly significant and extremely unusual rain event for this time of year” overnight between Saturday and Sunday, the IMS says, with the heaviest rain expected along the northern coast, the Sharon region and the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
“The rain is expected to be accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and even hail,” the IMS adds. “Urban flooding and disruptions are a real possibility in coastal cities due to the intensity of the rainfall, including in the Tel Aviv area and cities in the Shfela.”
It is generally highly unusual for Israel to experience any rainfall in the summer months, although there was a brief downpour two weeks ago in Jerusalem and some surrounding areas.
Board of Peace Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov calls out Israel for refusing to halt its strikes in Gaza, which he says violate the disarmament plan backed by the US-controlled body.
Mladenov notes during a Security Council briefing that the near-daily strikes, which Israel says are targeting Hamas operatives, have continued killing Palestinian civilians.
While the Board of Peace has established a deconfliction cell with Israel to address potential threats as they emerge in Gaza before they escalate, Mladenov admits that Jerusalem is not always using that mechanism.
Mladenov and US special envoy Jared Kushner tried to convince Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an August 17 meeting in Jerusalem to limit strikes in Gaza to imminent threats but failed to do so, with the premier insisting that the IDF would continue targeting all terrorists involved in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“Every use of force that does not answer an immediate threat, and every incident that the deconfliction mechanism was not asked to resolve, costs the process something that is very, very hard to buy back,” Mladenov warns.
Questioning the logic of Israel’s policy of continued strikes in Gaza, Mladenov asks the Security Council: “Will another strike on a munitions depot stop Hamas from rearming or tightening its grip on Gaza?”
“It will not. It only delays the demilitarization that would happen, and it obstructs the civilian transition that should take place to ensure that remilitarization will not be possible in the future.”
While criticizing Israel, Mladenov says Hamas has also failed to fully meet its commitments to cease all military activities, as part of its July 30 acceptance of the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal.
“Hamas has committed to cease all military activities. That commitment is still to be met in full,” Mladenov says.
“Every weapon carried, every tunnel still worked on, and every convoy still obstructed sets the process back and hands an argument to those who want to resume war,” he laments.
“Gaza does not have it in it to have another catastrophe. If the ceasefire collapses and the Strip spirals into another full escalation, there will be no roadmap to return to,” Mladenov warns.
An Israeli man is reportedly missing after major flash floods in Nepal that have killed at least dozens.
According to various Hebrew media reports, an Israeli man in his 50s or 60s was traveling in the area with an organized group of foreign tourists.
The entire group has reportedly been out of contact since the devastating flash floods began near the Nepal-Tibet border.
The Foreign Ministry does not respond to a request for comment.
Nepalese officials have said close to 100 people are confirmed dead and hundreds more missing, including many tourists.
The Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov calls out Israel for not allowing sufficient shelter equipment into the Strip, in a rare and direct public criticism of the Jewish state from a top emissary of a US-controlled body.
Briefing the UN Security Council, Mladenov notes that humanitarian conditions in Gaza have improved dramatically from last year when a global hunger monitor declared for the first time that famine has struck the densely populated northern Gaza Strip — a claim Israel denied at the time.
The Board of Peace envoy says needs in Gaza have shifted from food to sanitation, water and energy, which are being addressed by the UN, international organizations and Israel.
Shelter, on the other hand, remains sorely lacking in Gaza where the majority of the population of 2 million people are still living in tents.
Mladenov lays blame directly on Israel for the situation: “Winter is around the corner, and Israel’s present policy on quality shelter is not acceptable,” he says. “The Board of Peace urges the State of Israel to allow better shelter into the Strip for dignity, for health and for safety.”
The Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy briefs the UN Security Council on the status of the US-controlled body’s efforts to rebuild Gaza, touting Hamas’s acceptance of a disarmament plan, while effectively acknowledging that progress has since stalled.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out against the proposal, arguing that it won’t actually lead to Hamas’s disarmament and that Jerusalem therefore will not adhere to its required phased withdrawals from Gaza.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov argues before the Security Council that Israel is not being asked to accept the disarmament roadmap, but rather to reaffirm the commitments that it made as part of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, which Netanyahu accepted in September.
“While Israel has reaffirmed that framework, important questions of implementation still remain open,” Mladenov says, effectively acknowledging that Israel has not kept all of those commitments, which require ending military operations and surging humanitarian aid into the Strip.
The United States imposes sanctions on the Palestine Action group, designating it a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, according to a notice posted on a Treasury Department website.
The United Kingdom previously banned Palestine Action as a terrorist organization.
Palestine Action had increasingly targeted Israel‑linked defense companies in Britain with a particular focus on Israel’s largest defense firm Elbit Systems.
The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has said it will hear an appeal against a lower court ruling that Britain’s decision to ban campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was lawful.
Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas and former Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz release a joint statement saying that they are continuing discussions regarding a possible political alliance ahead of the October 27 election.
“Following recent discussions between Ra’am Chairman Mansour Abbas and former MK Yoav Segalovitz regarding Segalovitz joining the Ra’am list for the upcoming elections, the two leaders met again today,” the statement says.
“They discussed the details of the move and its importance for all citizens of the State of Israel and the fabric of Jewish-Arab relations, amidst numerous challenges and the need to present a worthy political alternative for the country’s citizens, both Jewish and Arab. Abbas and Segalovitz will continue in the coming days to advance this initiative for the sake of a necessary, values-driven civil connection,” the statement adds.
Speaking with Channel 12 on Saturday, Abbas said that Segalovitz is not set to formally join the party, but that negotiations with him are aimed at agreeing on terms for him to be given a slot on its Knesset slate.
Segalovitz reportedly does not intend to join any party unless it recognizes Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and supports national civilian service – an alternative to the military draft – for Arab citizens of Israel.
Abbas ignited controversy today when he said that his and other Arab parties have been “compelled” to accept Israel as a Jewish state, because they would otherwise be disqualified from running for the Knesset.
Delta Air Lines says it will resume its route from New York to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport as planned on September 6.
The US airline will restart services from New York’s JFK airport with a daily nonstop flight of the Airbus A330-900neo aircraft.
“The resumption of service follows a thorough review of the evolving security environment in the region,” Delta says in a statement. “The safety and security of our customers and employees remain our top priority, and Delta will continue to monitor the situation closely in coordination with aviation authorities and government agencies.”
American airlines, including Delta, canceled the route to and from Tel Aviv with the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran in late February. United Airlines is preparing to resume nonstop flight services from New York to Tel Aviv on September 8. Meanwhile, American Airlines has suspended the route through March 27, 2027.
US President Donald Trump asserts again that US military and economic pressure against Iran is working.
“Those things are going toward a very big victory,” he says in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck. “We’re going to have a big victory here very soon.”
Trump also insists that the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s military has disrupted and to a large extent blocked shipping, is in fact fully open.
“You could really say, you know, because the strait is open. We take a lot of ships through the strait now. We’re taking them in. The mines are gone,” he claims.
“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s what it’s all about. That’s 99.9 percent. We cannot let them because they are crazy and they will use it,” he says, before adding that he had already “stopped it twice.”
A Palestinian woman who allegedly planned a stabbing attack was apprehended by Israeli troops in the West Bank today, the military says.
The IDF says troops caught the woman at a junction near the settlement of Shavei Shomron, after receiving intelligence from the Shin Bet indicating that she planned an attack.
The woman was found to be armed with a knife and was handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning, the army adds.
US President Donald Trump says he doesn’t think Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is dead.
“I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded. But I don’t think he’s dead,” Trump says in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck.
The younger Khamenei — who took over after his father was killed in US-Israeli strikes that started the war in February — has not been seen in public since, sparking wide speculation as to his fate.
Ra’am party chief MK Mansour Abbas writes that he and the other Arab political parties are forced to accept Israel as a Jewish state; otherwise they would be barred from running for Knesset.
In a lengthy Arabic-language post on Facebook, Abbas writes that there are a number of his positions that have been “misrepresented” in recent months.
“First, the Jewish character of the state is a reality imposed upon us. It is not something we chose; rather, it is the choice of the Jewish majority and not our demand,” he writes. “Arab parties have been compelled to accept it in practice, otherwise they would be disqualified from parliamentary and local elections.”
Abbas also denies any reports that he does not recognize “the Nakba,” the Palestinian term meaning “catastrophe” which refers to the creation of Israel in 1948 and the mass displacement of Arabs at the time.
“The claim that I deny the Nakba, displacement, or the Palestinian narrative is another false accusation — a distortion and falsification of my words, their meaning, and their interpretation by those acting in bad faith,” he writes.
While head of an Islamist party, Abbas has positioned his faction as a moderate party which — unlike the other Arab-majority factions — is open to sitting in a governing coalition, as the party did when it joined the 2021 government headed by Naftali Bennett.
Abbas is also in talks with former police official and ex-Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovitz to join his party in an unprecedented move for the faction.
Religious Zionism party chief Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slams Abbas in response as “a dangerous enemy — a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Gilad Erdan, head of the Unity party, also criticizes the comments, saying Abbas is “deceiving the Central Elections Committee, deceiving the public, and there are those who are falling for it. He does not want a Jewish state, he wants an Islamic caliphate.”
Massive flash floods in Nepal today killed at least 22 people and left hundreds of tourists, workers and others missing while causing widespread damage to villages and infrastructure.
Dozens of multistory buildings, trucks and vans were buried under vast quantities of mud in the district of Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected areas. Officials warn residents in several of Nepal’s districts and ask them to stay away from the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli and Narayani rivers.
Officials say 384 tourists, including 291 from countries such as India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, have been reported missing.
Nepal tourism board officials say most of the missing are likely tourists from India and the Indian diaspora on pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet, a sacred site for Hindus.
There have been no reports so far of any missing Israeli tourists and the Foreign Ministry has not commented.
A former British regional police chief and three other officers are being investigated for misconduct over a decision to ban soccer fans of Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a game last year, the independent police watchdog says.
The West Midlands police force, which covers Birmingham in central England and is one of Britain’s biggest, had recommended the Israeli fans not be allowed to attend a Europa League match against Aston Villa last November because of security concerns.
The decision was condemned by both the British and Israeli governments, and Jewish community leaders accused the force of misrepresenting intelligence and undermining public confidence. The game went ahead without Maccabi fans. There was no major disruption although police made 11 arrests when pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli supporters demonstrated outside the stadium.
The chief constable of West Midlands Police, Craig Guildford, announced his immediate retirement in January after Britain’s interior minister said she no longer had confidence in him and a report found that his force had made a number of mistakes.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct says today it is now investigating Guildford and a staff member for gross misconduct, and three other officers for lesser misconduct offenses.
“We have examined a wealth of material, hundreds of pieces of evidence, and believe there is an indication some people serving with the police may potentially have behaved in a manner that could justify disciplinary proceedings,” IOPC Director of Engagement Derrick Campbell says in a statement.
West Midlands Police said the initial ban was based on current intelligence and past incidents. But an independent inquiry found that it had overstated the threat from Israeli fans, relied on inaccurate intelligence, and missed opportunities to engage with the local Jewish community.
The Finance Ministry takes the first step toward building an additional desalination facility expected to be the most advanced.
It issues pre-qualification documents to check the the professional, engineering, and financial capabilities of domestic and international groups interesting in bidding for a tender.
Eligible groups will compete for the design, finance, construction, operation, and maintenance of a facility in central Israel’s Emek Hefer industrial zone within the framework of a 25-year public-private partnership.
The new plant will provide 400 million cubic meters of desalinated water per year, equivalent to about 40% of the annual potable water consumption of households and industry, according to a Finance Ministry statement.
According to the statement, establishment of the plant will ensure Israel’s water security for decades to come, and might also help implementation of the Prosperity project, signed by Israel, Jordan, and the UAE in 2021. If completed, Israel would provide Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of water each year, while Jordan would supply 600 MW of solar energy to Israel.
The project has reportedly been stalled by Israel.
The tender for the new plant is expected to set advanced requirements in areas of energy efficiency, but will apparently run on fossil fuels. The statement says the tender might include an option to build a natural gas-fired power plant with a capacity of up to 300 megawatts to operate the facility.
The Department of Internal Police Investigations indicts a male squadron commander in the West Bank Border Police who allegedly beat and committed an indecent act against a female recruit as part of an on-base “initiation ceremony.”
The commander allegedly brought the woman into the mess hall of the Jerusalem-area base, asked her questions and hit her when she answered wrong.
He then allegedly pulled her hair, sat over her and forcefully brought her head toward his groin.
He is charged at the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court with arbitrary assault and an indecent act.
Iran and Oman have reached agreements on their share of the Strait of Hormuz and its revenues, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson says, according to a report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Wednesday.
The spokesperson says the US was obstructing negotiations between Oman and Iran, leading to them being delayed.
The report does not elaborate on the terms of the arrangement.
The Israeli Air Force bombed a Hamas site in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, which the IDF says was located next to a hospital and school.
The facility in Jabalia had served Hamas as an “ambush position,” as well as to store weapons, according to the military. The IDF says that recently, Hamas planned attacks and worked to restore the terror group’s capabilities from the building.
The strike killed several Hamas operatives, according to the army.
The military says the “ambush position” was located some 50 meters from the military’s Yellow Line in the area, and therefore it had “posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”
It was also located some 70 meters from Kamal Adwan Hospital, and 170 meters from a school, the IDF says.
#عاجل‼️بالقرب من مستشفى ومدرسة: جيش الدفاع دمر مبنى استخدمه مخربو حماس كنقطة كمين بالقرب من الخط الأصفر
⭕️هاجم جيش الدفاع ودمر أمس مبنى في جباليا شمال قطاع غزة، استخدمه مخربو حماس كنقطة كمين وكمخزن لوسائل قتالية. ومن داخل المبنى، خُطط لتنفيذ مخططات إرهابية ضد قوات جيش الدفاع،… pic.twitter.com/6WirF6Twn2
— Lieutenant Colonel Ella Waweya | إيلا واوية (@CaptainElla1) August 26, 2026
Hundreds of people are reported missing after an avalanche of ice and rock triggered massive flash floods that swept through parts of Nepal today, killing at least eight people and causing widespread damage to villages and infrastructure.
Officials say 384 tourists, 291 of them from countries including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, were reported missing as a result of the flash flood.
The Bhotekoshi River flooded around 9 a.m. this morning local time, destroying several villages as well as roads and hydropower projects, officials say. They have issued warnings to residents of several of Nepal’s districts and asked them to stay away from the banks of Bhotekoshi, Trishuli and Narayani rivers.
“We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts,” says Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the Nepali government.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the “United States will achieve nothing” with its new round of economic sanctions, according to local media reports.
“With the measures that the government’s economic sectors have foreseen, America will not achieve anything with economic pressure at this stage, just as it was unable to achieve anything in the war,” Pezeshkian says, according to ISNA news agency.
“Our principle is understanding and resolving issues through interaction and negotiation, but at the same time, we will stand firm against economic pressures, as we have done so far and will continue to do,” Pezeshkian adds.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Ahmed al- Sharaa spoke by phone today and discussed deepening political dialogue and cooperation in trade and other areas, the Kremlin says.
It says in a statement that the two leaders had noted the importance of an August 9 memorandum of understanding to settle the future of Russia’s bases at Tartus and Hmeimim after 18 months of negotiations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he discussed three possible approaches to Iran with US President Donald Trump during their July meeting in Washington — diplomacy, military action and what he describes as tightening the “siege” on Tehran — and links the third option to Washington’s newly expanded sanctions campaign, adding that he is doubtful of the possibility of a deal with “those savages” in Iran.
“I spoke with President Trump several weeks ago at the White House, in the Oval Office. We discussed three options [against Iran],” Netanyahu says in a video shared by his office from a Hebrew-language speech at an event in Jerusalem last night.
Netanyahu says he told Trump that he doubted the possibility of reaching a “good deal” with Tehran, saying: “I told him, there is one old option. Of course, you can make a deal. A good deal — we have no objection. I doubt that you can make a deal with that bunch over there, with those savages. I’m telling you: You can’t make a deal.”
“The second option” they discussed, he says, was “military action,” adding that Israel would be prepared to defend itself if attacked by Iran.
“We will not allow Iran to attack us, and if, God forbid, they attack us, they will suffer a blow beyond anything they have imagined– far stronger than anything they have suffered until now,” Netanyahu says.
The premier says he then presented Trump with a third option, “to tighten the siege” on Iran, telling him, “You decide.”
Netanyahu does not explicitly say that he proposed sanctions, but goes on to portray Washington’s newly expanded sanctions measures as an example of the pressure strategy he had discussed with Trump.
On Monday, “[Trump] reaffirmed that decision with something very, very, very powerful,” Netanyahu says, referring to Washington’s announcement of newly expanded sanctions on Iran, which the US says will target the country’s digital assets and technology, gold, aviation and shipping sectors, with secondary measures possibly affecting entities in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Europe.
“What President Trump did yesterday was to tighten the siege on Iran — not by tightening the siege on Iran itself, but by tightening the siege on those who help that regime, that terrible dictatorship. That is very important,” Netanyahu says.
Trump has long favored heavy economic pressure on Tehran, having pursued “maximum pressure” sanctions during his first term.
A 67-year-old man stabbed a woman at the bank where she works in south Tel Aviv a short while ago, according to first responders.
The woman, 45, was rushed to Wolfson Hospital in Holon in moderate condition, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
Police say officers arrested the suspect, took him to the Jaffa police station for interrogation and seized the knife he allegedly used.
The stabbing is not thought to be a terror attack, police add.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal met Sunday with the commander of the US Air Force, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the military announces.
Zamir was also joined by Israeli Air Force chief, Maj. Gen. Omer Tischler.
The IDF says they discussed “the regional assessment, advancing lessons learned from the joint campaign, and future areas of cooperation.”
“The visit reflects the importance of the strategic relationship between Israel and the United States and the close cooperation between the countries,” the military adds.
הרמטכ”ל, רב-אלוף אייל זמיר, נפגש ביום ראשון עם מפקד חיל האוויר האמריקאי, גנרל קנת’ וילסבאק, יחד עם מפקד חיל האוויר, אלוף עומר טישלר.
השניים דנו בהערכת המצב האזורית, בקידום הלמידה מהמערכה המשותפת ובמרחבי שיתוף פעולה עתידיים>>> pic.twitter.com/WeGIu3O1Z4
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 26, 2026
Israeli forces in East Jerusalem raided family homes of former Palestinian security prisoners whom Israel freed in exchange for Hamas-held hostages, and who “continued receiving payments and cash benefits from the Palestinian Authority for the terrorist acts they committed,” the police and Defense Ministry say in a joint statement.
The statement does not specify when the raids took place.
Officers from the ministry’s Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing confiscated hundreds of thousands of shekels in cash, five vehicles and jewelry worth NIS 96,000 ($32,380), the statement says.
The seizure complied with a repossession order signed by Defense Minister Israel Katz against released Palestinian prisoners who still receive the PA stipends that Israel refers to as “pay-to-slay” payments, according to the statement.
Amid international pressure, and in a bid to position itself as a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza, the PA last year enacted a welfare program that ended the payments.
The reforms, which tied all welfare recipients’ stipends to their financial situation rather than time served, sparked protests in the West Bank, and has failed to convince Israel and other PA critics, though an external audit earlier this year suggested the welfare reform was in effect.
According to the police and Defense Ministry statement, former prisoners whose homes were raided over PA payments include Ahed al-Natsheh, a Hamas operative convicted of planning a pair of 2001 attacks in Jerusalem, one of which wounded a dozen people; and Muhammad Abad, a Fatah operative convicted of planning a 2002 suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
Both were released under the second ceasefire deal with Hamas that was reached in January 2025.
Palestinian Jerusalem-based outlet Al-Qastal reports that two other prisoners released in that deal were summoned for interrogation today after Israeli forces raided their homes in the East Jerusalem area of Silwan.
They are named as Muhammad Farroukh and Amir Farroukh, members of a group the Shin Bet busted in 2017 that carried out several firebombings and other attacks in the capital and was planning shootings, according to the interior security agency.
A Justice Ministry list of prisoners set for release as part the early 2025 hostage deal identified both Farroukhs as Fatah operatives.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is poised to announce a complete ban on trade on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, British media reports.
According to The Telegraph, Burnham is considering a full trade embargo on all settlements, in response to Jerusalem’s planned building of settlements in the controversial E1 area. He could announce the plan “within weeks,” the report adds.
Looking to take a harder line against Israel than his predecessor Kier Starmer, the Labour leader will announce “robust” new sanctions against Israeli settlements, The Times reports, adding that he could also enact sanctions against far-right ministers and individual settlers.
But Labour Friends of Israel, a pro-Israel advocacy group within the center-left party, has warned that it would not be possible to ban trade of goods from settlements only, and that such a move would be a “de facto boycott of all of Israel.”
Palestinian media reports one dead and several injured in an Israeli strike targeting a tent in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.
The IDF tells The Times of Israel that the strike targeted a terror operative. Further details are expected to be provided by the military later.
The IDF originally refused the request of far-right MK Zvi Sukkot to tour “martyrs” monuments in Palestinian towns in the West Bank, before eventually relenting after Sukkot threatened to visit the sites without an army escort, Army Radio says.
Yesterday, Sukkot was filmed smashing a monument to slain Palestinians, many of them terrorists, with a sledgehammer in the West Bank village of Madama, as soldiers stood around. The incident was widely condemned, drawing denunciations from the army and politicians across the spectrum.
According to the Army Radio report, Sukkot first contacted the IDF several weeks ago about arranging a “tour” of Madama and several other towns with similar monuments, but the IDF initially refused his request, citing lack of manpower amid the ongoing situation regarding a settler siege of Palestinian homes in the nearby town of Qusra.
Sukkot then threatened to go ahead with his visit to the villages without an army escort, accompanied by just his Knesset Guard detail, the report says. Fearing he would be harmed if he went without an escort, the IDF relented, saying it would schedule an IDF escort for Sukkot once tensions in the area calmed down.
According to the report, soldiers in the unit tasked with escorting Sukkot to the village have told Army Radio that the incident was a waste of time and manpower, and that commanders were “shocked” when Sukkot took a sledgehammer out of his vehicle and started smashing the monument.
“We are stuck here between terrorism from Jews and terrorism from Palestinians,” one soldier tells Army Radio.
A false alarm warning of suspected rocket fire was activated near the Gaza border community of Kibbutz Alumim a short while ago, the military says.
The alert was only sent on the Home Front Command’s mobile application, and no actual sirens sounded in the community.
The military says it was a “false identification” and there is “no fear of a security incident.”
In an effort to expand services for ultra-Orthodox troops in the military, the IDF says that it will soon provide fresh meals with the most stringent level of kosher certification to those who request them.
Until now, Haredi soldiers who asked for “Mehadrin” meals received sealed food trays.
The sealed meals will be gradually discontinued, and starting in two weeks, the IDF will begin to supply ultra-Orthodox soldiers with fresh Mehadrin meals.
The army says the move is part of efforts to “improve and expand the provision of meals for soldiers requiring Mehadrin kosher food, as well as for those with medical sensitivities and all service members.”
The adviser to the IDF chief of staff on ultra-Orthodox affairs, Brig. Gen. Avinoam Emunah, says that the IDF is “not satisfied with ensuring that a Haredi soldier can serve in the IDF and maintain his way of life. Our responsibility is to ensure that he receives the conditions that will allow him to serve well, respectfully and for the long term.”
Firefighters are working to put out flames at a center of the Nadvorna Hasidic sect in Bnei Brak, the Fire and Rescue Service says in a statement.
Students and educational staff were evacuated from the building, and one child was taken to a hospital after inhaling smoke, the statement says, describing his injury as light.
A fire investigator has been called to the scene to probe what caused the flames, the statement adds.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 35-year-old son Yair was the target of an Iranian assassination plot while he was in Florida, US right-wing outlet Newsmax reports, citing a US law enforcement source.
The report comes a day after Netanyahu told the pro-government Channel 14 in a phone interview that “Iran targeted one of my sons. Iran tried to kill, to murder one of my sons.”
He did not say which of his two sons was the target, or provide any further details on the plot, but the source speaking to Newsmax says that Israeli intelligence learned last December that Iran was planning to kill Yair in Florida, where the right-wing social media firebrand spends the majority of his time.
According to the source, intelligence agencies believe that Iranian agents were “on the ground” in the Miami area conducting surveillance of the premier’s son’s movements.
The report says that Yair was told to immediately leave Florida and head back to Israel.
It adds that he left without packing his belongings and has been living in Israel ever since.
A suspected car thief in Jerusalem’s Katamon neighborhood overnight got into an accident and died after police who were chasing him shot at the vehicle’s tires, police say.
Officers responding to a report of a car theft located the vehicle on the road and ordered it to stop, police say.
The suspect refused and “began fleeing wildly,” including driving in the opposite direction to traffic, “putting officers and drivers in tangible danger,” according to police.
The officers the shot at the car’s tires, but the suspect continued fleeing until he crashed into a column and another car at the a-Tur Junction, police say.
The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was critically wounded and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
An officer and a civilian also received medical treatment for light wounds sustained in the incident, police add.
A fire at a hospital in the Pakistani capital Islamabad this morning killed 14 infants, a local authority say.
The fire broke out on the third floor of the Mother and Child Health Ward at the public Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital, the district office says in a statement.
The statement gave a death toll of 14, who according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were all infants.
The statement does not state the cause of the fire.
Five commodity vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, little changed from a day earlier but well below the 10-day average of 15, preliminary shipping data shows.
Two tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas and one tanker carrying bitumen exited the Gulf via the strait, while two empty product tankers entered the waterway from the Gulf of Oman, initial data from shipping tracker Kpler showed early this morning. On Monday, four commodity vessels transited the waterway, the data shows.
The figures could change as some ships typically switch off their location transponders during the voyage.
Transits through the Bab el-Mandeb into the Red Sea, another major maritime chokepoint in the Middle East, are also roughly little changed at 31 commodity vessels versus 29 the day before, Kpler data shows, but in line with the 10-day average.
At least three Indian oil refiners and a major global energy firm plan to stop using vessels on Iran’s new blacklist, including for ship-to-ship (STS) transfers, due to security concerns, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter say.
Tehran announced on Sunday a blacklist of 45 ships it said had broken its rules for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, and would take action against any vessels transferring loads with them, escalating its threats over the key waterway.
Iran’s announcement appears designed to impede the so-called shuttle runs Gulf oil producers such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have undertaken with dedicated tankers to move oil from the Gulf through Hormuz for unloading through STS transfers in the Gulf of Oman onto ships to end-users.
The shuttle runs have kept alive oil flows from the Middle East that have been curtailed by Iran’s clampdown on shipping through the strait because of the war.
The named vessels could be fined, detained and have their cargoes confiscated, according to a post on social media website X from the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a new body set up by Iran to manage the strait.
“We will avoid our chartered vessels dealing or STS or anything to do with non-compliant ships for Middle Eastern cargoes,” says one of the sources, who works at an Indian refinery.
The sources decline to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Several charterers and shipping firms are discussing internally whether to continue their STS operations or not and are evaluating Iran’s warning, multiple other trade and shipping sources say, with one of them, a Gulf crude buyer, saying it would be safer to buy oil on a delivered basis shipped to a final destination instead of free-on-board at STS locations in the Gulf of Oman.
Those sources also declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
US Sen. Darline Graham won the Republican nomination to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham on South Carolina’s general election ballot.
Darline Graham defeated U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman in Tuesday’s special Republican primary runoff, two weeks after they were the top two finishers in a 10-way primary.
Despite being a political unknown, Darline Graham bested some of South Carolina’s top political names in the special election spun up after her brother’s sudden death last month. She was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster to serve out the remaining months of her late brother’s current term and swiftly notched an endorsement from President Donald Trump, who encouraged her to enter the race for a full term and campaigned for her in the state last week.
Graham will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews in November.
Music legend Dolly Parton died after “a brief battle with cancer,” her representatives tell US media after the 80-year-old’s death was announced on Tuesday.
People magazine also reports Parton was admitted to a cancer treatment facility on Friday and had acknowledged in a recent interview with the magazine that she was “dealing with some health issues.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret meetings during the early months of the Gaza war with controversial former IDF general Ofer Winter, who unveiled his new right-wing party on Tuesday, Channel 13 reveals.
The meetings were held at private apartments in Tel Aviv, and the premier did not update his cabinet or the IDF about them, the network says.
Winter, during the meetings, reportedly presented Netanyahu with plans for the IDF to conquer Gaza.
Channel 13 uses the revelation to argue that Netanyahu’s attacks on Tuesday against Winter are politically, rather than ideologically, motivated.
The network says Netanyahu recognizes that Winter’s new party is uniquely situated to siphon off hard-right voters from the premier’s Likud party.
The United States hails the dissolution of a Kurdish-led, Washington-backed force in Syria that was at the forefront of the battle against the Islamic State group, and its merger into the country’s army.
“This is what real integration looks like: not winners and losers, but former counterparts with differing points of view crafting a diplomatic solution to strengthen the sovereign nation of Syria. One army, one government, one state,” says the US special envoy to Syria and Iraq, Tom Barrack, who is also the ambassador to Turkey.
Another former employee of the Prime Minister’s residence has sued Sara Netanyahu, claiming that the premier’s wife verbally abused him, made him perform demeaning tasks and made a racist remark about him, according to Hebrew reports.
Rami Ben Hamo, who worked in the Prime Minister’s Office and residence for more than a decade, alleges that Sara Netanyahu called him an “unsophisticated Moroccan,” among other degrading language.
He alleges that she would make him work long hours illegally and would order him to clean the soles of her shoes with wet wipes.
If he failed to heed her instructions, the suit claims, “He would find himself subjected to harsh attacks, insults and degradation.”
Sara Netanyahu has faced accusations for years of verbally or physically abusing staff, and staff alleging harm have previously won compensation in court. Another employee filed suit against her last month.
The Netanyahu family denies the allegations and suggests that they’re meant to hurt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chances in the upcoming election.
A suspected grenade attack occurred at a business in Hadera a short while ago, without causing injuries, police say.
Officers arrived on the scene to gather evidence, according to police.
“The incident is of a criminal nature,” and is not being treated as a terror attack, police add.
The US Secret Service is aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state television discussing a potential plot to assassinate US President Donald Trump’s youngest son, a spokesperson says.
“The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees. Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence,” Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring says in an email.
A three-minute video broadcast by Iranian state TV discussed a potential plot to assassinate Barron Trump, 20, claiming that he was being monitored and alleging that a $10 million bounty had been offered for his killing.
The United States and Iran have kept up hostile rhetoric during a nearly six-month-old war started by the US and Israel in February. Israel has largely stayed out of the fighting since an April ceasefire that has since collapsed.
Reuters reported earlier this month that the US has received several warnings from Israel over the past year that Iran intended to assassinate Trump, according to officials, including before a secret Air Force One ruse in Turkey.
Trump has described himself as “number one on the kill list for Iran.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told counterparts around the world that Washington does not currently expect to carry out new offensive strikes against Iran, as the Trump administration shifts its focus toward economic pressure and securing the Strait of Hormuz, two sources familiar with the conversations tell Channel 12.
Rubio did not rule out US military action if Iran initiates new hostilities, the sources say.
As Washington pushes new sanctions against Iran and US President Donald Trump asserts that the strait has been cleared of mines endangering ships, the report states that Rubio said the US is shifting to focus on increasing economic pressure on Iran and normalizing shipping through the vital waterway.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out threatened secondary sanctions on Iran in a speech yesterday.
The new approach is expected to remain in place at least through the US midterm elections in early November, after which the possibility of a broader military campaign could again be considered, according to the sources.
Separately, Channel 12 reporter Barak Ravid, who also reports for Axios, says US officials with direct knowledge confirmed Trump’s announcement earlier today that the US Navy had cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz’s Traffic Separation Scheme, the main shipping corridor between Oman and Iran.
Iran had committed under the defunct US-Iran memorandum of understanding to remove dozens of mines it had deployed in the shipping lane during the war.
Over the past several months, US Navy underwater drones systematically scanned the area and identified more than 100 objects suspected of being mines, which private contractors were then brought in to remove or detonate, according to Axios.
US officials say the operation has made it safe for vessels to transit the strait in both directions under US Air Force protection, potentially allowing a significant increase in tanker traffic.
They argue that clearing the mines sharply reduces Iran’s leverage over global energy markets and in any future negotiations with Washington, while also diminishing the relevance of a draft arrangement Iran and Oman have been discussing for months over the strait’s traffic.
Most data estimates indicate that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains at only around 10-15% of prewar levels.
Trump has also made several contradictory claims regarding whether or not mines were ever planted at all in the strait.
