Author: Human

Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Al Saud met with US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday in Washington to discuss the recent US-Saudi strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, according to a CNN report.

Khalid originally planned to make the brief trip last week before postponing it, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the trip.

In the meeting, the defense minister told Vance that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is interested in de-escalating the situation with Iran, according to a source familiar with the details of the meeting. Notably, the comment stands in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on the war with Iran.

This comes as US Central Command (CENTCOM) struck Iraq on Wednesday together with the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, targeting "Iran-aligned terrorists that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed to attack US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure," according to a CENTCOM post on X/Twitter.

"US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours," CENTCOM said.

The sources told CNN that Saudi Arabia believes Iran is seeking to generate leverage through regional escalation, with attacks from its proxies expected to continue.

Saudi Arabia stressed that it still seeks de-escalation regardless, the sources said, with the kingdom’s response meant to send the message that attacks against it will not go unanswered.

Esther Davis and Ruby Sadikman contributed to this report.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorist activities, and that it had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

The FSB said that the charges related to Telegram’s failure to remove material “used by Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations within the Russian Federation.”

There was no immediate comment from Durov or Telegram.

Telegram, an encrypted messenger app founded in 2013, says it has more than 1 billion users and is widely used on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Russia has repeatedly tried to restrict Telegram's use in recent years, promoting its own state-backed MAX messenger service.

Durov, who was born in Russia but now holds Emirati and French passports, founded Russia’s Facebook equivalent, VKontakte, before selling his remaining stake in 2014 amid pressure from Russian authorities.

French authorities are investigating Durov over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately counter criminal activity on the platform and did not sufficiently cooperate with law enforcement requests. Durov denies wrongdoing.

For generations, support for Israel united Washington. Now Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the Iran war and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s close ties to US Republicans are eroding Democratic backing, threatening to turn one of America’s closest alliances into a partisan divide.

Support for Israel among Democratic voters has plummeted, candidates critical of Israel are winning Democratic primaries, and even moderate lawmakers are increasingly willing to challenge decades of US support for Israel.

The shift is evident in Congress. This month, nearly half of House Democrats voted for a failed amendment to cut off aid to Israel, legislation that once likely would have been defeated by an overwhelming bipartisan majority. Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in US military aid and received billions more in emergency funds in recent years.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and some of his lieutenants opposed the measure, calling it overly broad. But former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark were among those voting yes.

Democrats are increasingly divided over whether military aid should continue unchanged, be restricted to defensive weapons or be halted altogether.

US Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he hopes Israeli elections in October help restore bipartisan US support while opening a new chapter beyond Netanyahu's leadership.

"New governments get to change direction," Coons told Reuters, adding, "Netanyahu has kept Israel at war for years now, partly to avoid the political consequences of his choices."

Overall sentiment toward Israel is declining. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% of voters and 66% of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% when the question was first asked in 2017.

"Yes, there is a vigorous debate, but across broad segments of the parties, support for Israel remains firmly in the mainstream," said Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview.

The shift faces a major test in Tuesday's Democratic US Senate primary in Michigan, where voters will weigh competing visions of US support with growing numbers of congressional Democrats questioning longstanding US military aid.

The race between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and US Representative Haley Stevens will determine who faces Republican Mike Rogers in November and reflects the wider Democratic debate over Israel and longstanding US military support.

Stevens made a video with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major donor to her campaign, arguing that a close relationship with Israel "yields trade, that yields economic growth and that keeps our freedoms safe."

By contrast, El-Sayed, a former public health official, told Fox News: "The question is whether we want a politics where our money is sent over to Israel to fund genocide and apartheid instead of investing in our own kids."

A U.N. inquiry and several human rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in its military's devastation of Gaza, an allegation Israel rejects, saying it is fighting Hamas and taking steps to reduce civilian harm.

Israeli policy has been a factor in other battleground congressional races, including New York, Florida and Colorado.

Strains with Democrats deepened 11 years ago, when in a speech to Congress at the request of the Republican majority, Netanyahu attacked a deal crafted by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, on controlling Iran's nuclear program.

Sentiment critical of Israel grew after Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and hundreds were taken hostage. More than 73,000 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Gaza health officials.

Israel's bombardment of Gaza has reshaped Democratic politics, fueling a backlash among younger voters and deepening a generational divide within the party.

Campus protests in 2024 intensified pressure on Democrats to reassess support for Israel. Some analysts say President Joe Biden's refusal to do so contributed to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' loss to Trump later that year.

Adding to tensions, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for Netanyahu's arrest for alleged war crimes.

This primary election cycle, some establishment candidates have been defeated by more progressive challengers who have questioned support for Israel, mostly in congressional districts dominated by Democrats.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a progressive pro-Israel rival to AIPAC, said the debate within the Democratic Party reflected a backlash against the right-wing Netanyahu and AIPAC, calling it "a toxic brew that really has helped to make Israel, unfortunately, a real wedge issue in the Democratic Party."

AIPAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Shibley Telhami, a University of Maryland professor of government and politics and senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, called it a "paradigm shift that sees Israel now as a villain, even a genocidal villain, in a way that was never the case before."

While some conservative influencers have joined the attack, the Republican Party will support Israel as long as evangelical Christians and Trump stand firm, Telhami said in an interview.

The divide over Israel is spilling into congressional campaigns elsewhere.

Republican Representative Mike Lawler, who represents a district outside New York City with a large Jewish population, has used the Democratic shift on Israel to attack challenger Cait Conley in a battleground fight for control of the House.

In southern Florida, moderate Representative Jared Moskowitz, a consistent supporter of Israel aid, is being challenged in the August 18 Democratic primary by democratic socialist Oliver Larkin, who campaigns on his belief that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and supports an immediate suspension of US military aid to Israel.

Recent opinion polls show Moskowitz leading Larkin by 32 percentage points.

Longtime US Representative Diana DeGette was defeated in the Colorado Democratic primary by Ethiopian-born Melat Kiros. Kiros has called for ending wars, including by stopping military aid to Israel, while DeGette said she supported sending only defensive weapons to Israel.

US Senator Mazie Hirono, who has advocated for a two-state solution and more humanitarian aid for Palestinians, said, “I think the support for Israel’s right to exist, all of that is there. It’s just the (Israeli) leadership we seriously question.”

US President Donald Trump hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to discuss the war in Iran.

They also spoke about expanding the Abraham Accords, following calls by Trump for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel.

“It was a very positive meeting,” a person familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post. “You could see the chemistry between the leaders.”

There were no final agreements, but the parties made progress during the meeting, informed sources told the Post.

“It was an extremely positive meeting,” a senior Israeli source who was at the meeting said. “The prime minister and president held an excellent and comprehensive discussion on the key issues of the day, first and foremost Iran. The leaders reaffirmed their ironclad commitment to ensuring that Iran never has nuclear weapons.”

Separately on Tuesday, Middle Eastern diplomats said there had been progress in efforts to resolve the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, although no final agreement was reached.

“The prime minister and the president reiterated the message that Iran must not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon – whether through an agreement or otherwise,” another source said, adding that the Israeli side was also describing the meeting as positive, and that all of the issues on the agenda were reviewed.

The Israeli delegation included Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff Ido Norden, Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Guy Markizeno, and advisers Ofir Falk and Caroline Glick.

They met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Vice President JD Vance, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the talks lasted about an hour and a half and went well.

Netanyahu entered the White House through the side entrance. It was unclear whether anyone came outside to greet him.

Netanyahu would like to get Trump’s support for his reelection campaign ahead of the October 27 election, people familiar with the matter said.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump was asked about reports that Netanyahu planned to talk to him about work happening at Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran’s main nuclear sites.

“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that,” Trump told Fox News. “Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.”

US relations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with Trump at the White House earlier on Tuesday, have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances.

Netanyahu arrived amid growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump’s supporters who oppose deeper US involvement in the Middle East.

Zelensky and Netanyahu attended a memorial service for senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was an advocate for both Israel and Ukraine in Washington, especially in getting their views heard by Trump.

Zelensky said anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with the US were the “No. 1 priority” for meetings with Trump and his team.

“Peace needs to be brought closer,” he said in a post on X/Twitter.

After his meeting with Trump, Zelensky thanked the US president for "all that we are doing together to protect the lives of Ukrainians and achieve peace."

Zelensky added that the two leaders had discussed licenses for the manufacture of Patriot interceptors, and the importance of intensifying the diplomatic process.

Zelensky and Trump clashed repeatedly in the early months of the US president’s second term, but relations between the two have improved in recent months as Ukraine has had greater success in the war, including with increased attacks on Russia’s oil industry.

Zelensky was expected to press Trump for urgently needed air-defense capabilities and to complete a drone deal with the US. They were expected to discuss Trump’s promise at the NATO summit to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptors.

Former US senator Lindsey Graham was liked by nearly everybody who met him, US President Donald Trump said during the late Republican senator's funeral on Tuesday.

"Virtually everyone, Republican or Democrat, liked Lindsey," added Trump. "Well, not everybody, but he sounds good. Not everybody. He was a tough cookie."

"When Senator Tim Scott, a great gentleman in his own right, I can tell you, invited him to prayer breakfast at 8:30 a.m., Lindsey told him, 'Tim, if Jesus Himself comes back before 10 a.m., I ain't going,'" Trump continued.

"I end by saying something very, very special, Lindsey," Trump concluded. "We love you. God bless you. We will always be with you, and you are very, very special. Thank you. Thank you very much."

Hundreds of US lawmakers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to honor Graham, whose outspoken support for an assertive foreign policy made him one of the party's last prominent hawks.

US Air Force bands played, a nod to his service in that branch of the armed forces, and colleagues paid tribute to one of the country's best-known senators, remembering him as gregarious, funny and persuasive. They stood before Graham's flag-draped coffin, which was placed at the center of the cavernous rotunda.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the funeral of an ally who forcefully lobbied Washington to back both countries during conflict later that day.

Netanyahu and his wife Sara attended a memorial dinner the night before.

"America has lost a great patriot. Israel has lost one of its greatest friends and supporters. And I have lost a dear friend," Netanyahu said.

Trump, who Graham denounced early in his political career before becoming a staunch supporter, spoke at the funeral at the Washington National Cathedral in the afternoon.

"It really ended up being a great friendship," Trump said of his fellow Republican in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, praising Graham for his help navigating partisan politics in Washington. "If I needed a Democrat, he could usually produce that Democrat if I had to have them in an emergency. He was a great politician and a great gentleman."

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly from a heart ailment on July 11 at age 71, was a defense hawk who regularly called for an interventionist US role on the world stage and strongly backed both Israel and Ukraine.

At the Capitol ceremony, Vice President JD Vance recalled him as a compelling figure in the Senate whose risqué jokes could make him laugh to the point of abdominal cramps.

"Because he loved people, he saw that the Senate, at its very best, could be a deliberative body geared towards persuading people," Vance said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: "There was no one, no one, who took his job more seriously than Lindsey Graham, but also, no one was more capable of cracking up a room during the work week here in Washington."

They also recalled Graham's charm working on leaders of US allies. Graham met with Zelensky in Kyiv only a day before his death, the 10th time he had visited Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion. On Tuesday, the Senate was expected to vote on a bipartisan package of new sanctions on Russia that Graham spent his final days trying to push across the finish line.

Graham was one of Trump's most visible allies, making frequent appearances on cable television news shows to tout the administration's policies. In recent months, he had been a stalwart defender of the unpopular war in Iran.

Graham had been running for a fifth term in the Senate after winning the South Carolina Republican primary in June. His sister, Darline Graham, was appointed by South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to fill the remainder of his term.

She has announced her intention to seek a full six-year term in November, with Trump’s endorsement. The Democratic candidate, pediatrician Annie Andrews, is considered a long shot given South Carolina’s strong Republican lean.

Lindsey Graham served as his sister’s guardian after their parents died when she was still a girl.

A former Air Force lawyer and a member of South Carolina’s Air National Guard, Graham served in the state legislature and the US House of Representatives before winning his Senate seat in 2002.

He briefly ran for president in the 2016 election, when he was adamantly opposed to Trump’s candidacy; he called the future president a “race-baiting, ⁠xenophobic, religious bigot” on CNN.

But he eventually became one of Trump’s most loyal backers in the Senate, and the two were frequent golf partners.

In addition to Tuesday's ceremonies in Washington, there will be funeral services for Graham on Wednesday in South Carolina, where he will be buried.

The man believed to be behind a deadly vehicle attack near Berlin’s Pride celebration over the weekend left a video on his phone pledging allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Though the person in the video was masked, authorities assume it shows the suspected attacker, 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors’ office said.

He would not specify when the video was recorded.

Ballout, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, is suspected of plowing a vehicle into crowds in Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate late on Saturday, killing a Polish woman in her 60s and injuring 29 people.

Germany’s interior minister announced a security overhaul on Monday after the vehicle attack prompted an angry debate over why the suspected driver had been freed under supervision of a probation officer and was not in prison.

The suspect had been convicted and sentenced to jail time in May for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state.

Uganda’s health minister declared the country Ebola-free on Tuesday following the East African nation’s latest outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic disease that infected 20 people and killed two of them.

Uganda has suffered multiple outbreaks of Ebola since 2000, when it recorded its first epidemic, and officials say over the years the country gained expertise it has used to bring recent infections under control quickly with limited community spread.

Fifteen people in the latest outbreak, declared in mid-May, were infected in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo – the epicenter of the epidemic, where the number of confirmed cases now stands at more than 3,000.

The last Ebola patient in Uganda, a Congolese national, was discharged on June 22. That is short of the 42-day waiting period required by the World Health Organization to declare the end of an outbreak.

But Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi said the announcement follows the "successful completion of the mandatory 42-day monitoring period which began after the discharge of the last Ugandan national, a locally transmitted patient, on the 16 of June, 2026."

Of the 20 confirmed cases during the outbreak, 18 were discharged while two died from the virus, both of whom were from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Throughout this period, the Ministry of Health maintained intensive surveillance nationwide, and no new Ebola cases have been detected,” Baryomunsi said.

Officials say Uganda's many tropical forests that teem with fruit bats, which are natural reservoirs for the virus, make it vulnerable to frequent outbreaks.

The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue, and symptoms include headache, vomiting of blood, muscle pains, and bleeding.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the US may require inspections in case they were incorrectly installed and needed to be fixed.

If not corrected, the seats could injure passengers and crew members during an emergency landing or block the aisle and slow an evacuation, the agency said.

The FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive issued on Monday would apply to 453 jets registered in the US. The agency only has jurisdiction over US airlines, but foreign regulators typically follow FAA directives if applicable.

Nearly 2,300 737 MAX jets are in service around the world, including 823 in the US, according to aviation advisory and intelligence firm IBA.

The proposed directive comes as Boeing works to improve its production quality and boost output under CEO Kelly Ortberg.

Production quality problems were revealed in early 2024 when a door-plug panel blew out of a nearly new Alaska Air 737 MAX in flight.

The FAA said in the airworthiness directive proposal that it received a report that some passenger seat assemblies were not correctly installed in the seat tracks.

That meant the assemblies could disengage from the seat tracks if there was an increased load, turbulence, or an emergency landing, the FAA said.

There could be up to 69 track-mounted passenger seat assemblies on each 737 MAX plane, and the issue would take an estimated one work hour to inspect and then an hour to fix each assembly and required no parts, the FAA said. Airlines might be able to have multiple employees inspecting seats simultaneously, greatly reducing the total time for each aircraft.

It did not say how quickly airlines would need to correct the issue.

A Boeing spokesperson said the planemaker issued guidance to operators about the issue in December 2025.

"We support the FAA making that guidance mandatory," the spokesperson said in an email.

Prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence for the indie pop vocalist known as D4vd to stand trial on charges that he fatally stabbed and dismembered a 14-year-old girl who threatened to expose their clandestine relationship, a Los Angeles judge ruled on Monday.

Judge Charlaine Olmedo found there was probable cause for a jury to decide the fate of David Anthony Burke, 21, whose breakout major-label music success as a recording artist named D4vd (pronounced “David”) was cut short by his arrest last year.

He spent five days in a packed downtown courtroom shackled in his seat as prosecutors presented graphic witness testimony and crime-scene photos to convince Olmedo that their case met the minimum legal standard to put Burke on trial.

The victim's parents were present for most of the testimony.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters during the first day of the proceedings that his office would decide later whether to seek the death penalty.

Burke began his career as a viral TikTok sensation with songs produced for Fortnite gaming videos in 2022, and his first hit single, "Romantic Homicide," paved the way for a multimillion-dollar deal with Interscope Records.

His debut studio album was released in April 2025, in the week that prosecutors say his underage girlfriend, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, went missing and was stabbed to death.

Her decomposing remains were found five months later crammed into the trunk of a Tesla sedan that authorities say was registered to Burke. The car had been towed to an impoundment lot where workers noticed the stench of decay emanating from the vehicle and called police.

The singer-songwriter was arrested in April of this year and charged with first-degree murder, mutilation of human remains and child sexual abuse.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges during an April 20 arraignment in which his attorney, Blair Berk, vehemently professed her client's innocence.

"We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Rivas Hernandez, nor was he the cause of her death," Berk said then.

In a court brief filed the following week, prosecutors first detailed the gruesome manner in which they said Burke killed the victim and disposed of her body, as well as his alleged motives.

The DA's office said Burke acted in fear she would ruin his burgeoning showbiz career after she threatened, out of jealousy, to go public with damaging information about their sexual relationship, which prosecutors say began when she was 13.

Financial manager Benjamin Greger testified during this week's preliminary hearing that Burke, his sole entertainment client, had grossed earnings of $10 million to $11 million from 2023 to 2025, following his Interscope deal.

The accusation of murder for financial gain is among the special circumstances included in the charges, making Burke potentially liable for the death sentence. Another alleges he did so because the victim was a witness to a crime.

On April 23, 2025, one day after Burke and the girl had quarreled over her threats to expose him, according to prosecutors, he hailed her an Uber ride to his Hollywood Hills home, then stabbed the victim to death after she arrived.

During their evidentiary hearing, the prosecution displayed photos of three chain saws, a shovel, and other items they said Burke had purchased online under a fictitious name and had delivered to his home after the killing on April 23, 2025.

Among these was a plastic blue inflatable swimming pool that prosecutors said the victim's body was placed in to prevent blood from spilling onto his garage floor.

The victim's torso and head were found inside a black vinyl cadaver bag stuffed into the front trunk of the abandoned Tesla, on top of a plastic garbage bag containing the victim's limbs, police homicide detective Joshua Byers testified last Tuesday.

Shreds of blue plastic from the swimming pool were found embedded in the flesh of the severed limbs, Byers said.

Two fingers on the girl's left hand had been amputated but were not recovered, while the girl’s right index finger bore a cryptic tattoo reading, "SHHH…," which matched a marking Burke was later found to have tattooed on his own right index finger, according to Byers.

The remains had to be positively identified through dental records, the detective said.

Several biological samples collected from Burke’s garage tested positive for blood, and DNA analysis of various specimens matched the victim’s unique genetic profile, according to prosecutors’ court brief.

At least one shot was fired outside the US consulate in downtown Toronto early on Monday, but there were no injuries, police said, in what was the second such incident in the last four months.

Police officers, alerted by the sound of a gunshot, said they found evidence of a weapon having been fired outside the building on University Avenue.

Police said that a white sedan was seen fleeing the scene and added that no injuries were reported.

On March 10, several shots were fired at the same building, following three separate incidents in which gunshots were fired at synagogues in the Toronto area. Police increased security outside the US and Israeli consulates in Toronto, Canada's largest city, in response.

In June, police said, without providing any more details, that young people in the Toronto area were being paid to shoot at various targets, including synagogues, Jewish schools and the US Consulate. Police arrested three people in connection with the March shooting, and one police officer was killed during the operation.

Toronto Deputy Police Chief Frank Barredo said an officer assigned to the US Consulate security detail heard a gunshot at about 4:46 a.m., and police later recovered a shell casing and found damage to the front of the building. Police also briefly pursued a vehicle seen leaving the area but discontinued the chase because of its high speed, he said.

Barredo declined to comment on a possible motive, and on whether the shooting was linked to previous incidents at the US Consulate.

"We'll point out that it is quite early in this investigation. Some information I may not be able to share, and some information I simply may not know at this point."

The US Embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford condemned the shooting, as well as vandalism at two Jewish bakeries in the city over the weekend.

“I’m totally disgusted by the shootings and vandalism that took place in Toronto over the last few days, including at two Jewish-owned businesses over the weekend and near the US Consulate this morning,” he wrote on X. “In all cases, active police investigations are underway. I expect all those responsible to be found, prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”