The EU climate monitor says August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally and that summer in western Europe was the warmest it had measured.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service says global average air temperatures in August were 16.96ºC (62.53ºF) — surpassing by 0.01ºC the previous high set in July 2023 — and that western Europe endured its “warmest summer on record.”
An Iraqi commander of the Iran-backed militia who allegedly plotted attacks against Jewish targets in Europe, Canada and the United States tried to enter Singapore on multiple occasions, the city-state’s security agency says.
Singapore says it would not have allowed Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi to enter the country. But it warned the case highlighted how conflicts in the Middle East could raise terrorism risks in Southeast Asia.
US prosecutors identified Al-Saadi in charges filed in May as a senior figure in Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed group designated by Washington as a terrorist organisation linked to the IRGC. According to US authorities, he directed and encouraged attacks on US and Israeli interests, and urged the killing of Americans and Jews in retaliation for the war against Iran.
In an annual terrorism threat assessment report, Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) says that Al-Saadi, who is in US custody awaiting trial, applied for visas to visit Singapore in 2023 and 2024.
“Baqer had applied for visas to visit Singapore on three separate occasions in 2023 and 2024, but did not eventually travel to Singapore,” the agency says.
The ISD says it believed Al-Saadi had travelled elsewhere in Southeast Asia during that period.
“Had he attempted to enter Singapore, he would have been denied entry,” it adds. “We do not discount the possibility that Baqer’s travel to this region could have been for terrorism purposes, and he could have set his sights on targeting Singapore, including US and Israeli/Jewish interests here.”
The agency says it is working with intelligence partners to investigate his activities.
Activities by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its network of armed proxies “have elevated the threat of terrorism beyond the immediate theatre of conflict in the Middle East,” it adds.
Saudi civil defense issues an emergency alert for the southwestern province of Khamis Mushait to warn of potential danger for the fourth time in 24 hours.
The civil defense posts on X shortly afterward saying the danger has passed.
US President Donald Trump says the United States may hit Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, urging Tehran to be cautious.
“We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard,” Trump says in a speech at the midterm Republican convention.
Pickaxe Mountain, located near Iran’s heavily damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility, is a fortified site with two deeply buried tunnel complexes.
Trump has been threatening strikes on Pickaxe Mountain since at least mid-July.
In an interview with Channel 12 news, former defense minister Yoav Gallant says he didn’t see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kirya military HQ in Tel Aviv until 10 a.m. on October 7, 2023, some 3.5 hours after Hamas-launched its devastating invasion of Israel.
Asked if the two spoke by phone before then, Gallant says he can’t remember “but in any case there was not a meaningful [call] and I don’t know who initiated it.”
Gallant dismisses the notion that Netanyahu was the only senior figure holding it together in the days after the onslaught, telling the network to look at pictures from meetings at the time to determine “who looked how.”
“I, by the way, was not in makeup,” Gallant says in a dig at Netanyahu. “I saw a prime minister who was either producing or feeling and bringing an atmosphere of defeatism. It really worried me.”
Gallant is also dismissive of Netanyahu’s claim that “everything would have looked different” if he was woken up before the attack.
“OK, they woke him up at 6:30, and he arrived [at the Kirya] at 10. If they woke him up during the night, he apparently would’ve gotten there around 3.5 hours later,” he says.
The ruling Likud party in response accuses Gallant of lying and insists Netanyahu was at the Kirya by 8:22 a.m. “and waited for Gallant and the chief of staff until 9:55,” without specifying what the premier did during that time.
“In any case, for hours later there was no relevant situational assessment to present to the prime minister,” Likud adds.
Multiple American military aircraft suffered damage in strikes overnight on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, CBS reporter Jennifer Jacobs says on X.
One A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, was struck and left with a missing wing, while roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage and were placed back into service, she adds.
Top White House advisers, including US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have privately warned President Donald Trump that the conflict with Iran could extend through the remainder of his presidency, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials.
The report says Vance, Rubio and other officials have told Trump that Iran could continue holding out against American economic and military pressure, extending the conflict beyond the US presidential inauguration in January 2029.
“President Trump has destroyed Iran’s military capabilities and is crippling what’s left of its abysmal economy with the most powerful naval blockade in world history and crushing sanctions,” a White House spokesperson tells the newspaper in response. “Only President Trump knows what he will do and when.”
Air raid sirens are activated in several Israeli communities near the Lebanon border, due to what the military says is “a false identification” of a drone.
The Hamas terror group announces the death of a top member in an Israeli strike in Gaza City today.
Farah Hamed is described by Hamas as a “commander and fighter” in the terror group’s military wing, and a member of the “Military Council of the al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank.”
Hamed was a member of the “Silwad cell,” which operated during the Second Intifada and carried out a series of deadly shooting attacks in the West Bank.
Originally from the Ramallah area, Hamed was released from prison and deported to Gaza in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In May 2024, the head of the cell, who was also released in the Shalit deal, was killed in Rafah.
Hamed was targeted in a strike in Gaza City’s Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood earlier today, according to Palestinian media.
The IDF has not yet issued a statement on the strike.
عاجل | استشهاد الأسير المحرر المبعد "فرح أحمد حامد" من بلدة سلواد في رام الله؛ جراء قصف الاحتلال في شارع الرشيد بمنطقة الشيخ عجلين، جنوب غرب مدينة غزة. pic.twitter.com/R63IbUrBtg
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) September 9, 2026
Likud party ministers and local officials are sent into an uproar after Construction and Housing Minister Haim Katz attempted to fire Yehuda Eliyahu, the interim head of the Israel Land Authority.
The move has led Likud to issue a statement saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Eliyahu’s appointment, that he does “important national work in the Galilee and Negev, and will not be fired.”
Katz claims in a statement that he was summoning Eliyahu to a hearing prior to termination due to mismanagement, inappropriate remarks and discrimination toward women, according to the Ynet outlet.
“The series of matters will be examined in the framework of the hearing, which will be held with an open heart and willing spirit, and according to the rules of proper management,” Katz says.
But news of the hearing has led to a cascade of protests from Eliyahu’s defenders, who are accusing Katz of a power grab. Eliyahu is an ally of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi notes that Eliyahu’s appointment faced legal challenges, and accuses Katz in a social media post of “paving the way for an appointment that’s acceptable to the deep state.”
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli posts, “Yehuda Eliyahu is one of the most important appointees of the nationalist camp, and no power broker with a reserved spot [on the Likud election slate] will move him out of his job.”
Ynet reports that dozens of mayors and local officials have also come out in an open letter against firing Eliyahu, saying that doing so will impede the development of the Negev and Galilee.
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