Category: News

Iran is going to become a member of the BRICS Bank, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said, according to reports from Iranian media on Tuesday evening.

BRICS is an organization made up of eleven countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. It is an economic and geopolitical bloc that focuses on trade and development.

The New Development Bank (BRICS Bank) is a “multilateral development bank established by BRICS with the purpose of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging markets and developing countries,” its website explains.

Hemmati announced that Iran was set to join the BRICS Bank in the near future, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

"Productive cooperation has commenced between our country and India in the areas of monetary affairs, banking, and the digital economy," Hemmati said.

The next BRICS Summit will take place in September. The Governor said “The BRICS summit offers a prime opportunity to meet with officials from member nations with whom our country maintains its most extensive monetary and banking exchanges and interactions,” Tasnim reported.

"We believe that BRICS member nations can conduct trade using their national currencies, and we are pursuing bilateral and trilateral monetary cooperation with these members."

Iran’s wartime economic crisis has triggered mass layoffs across multiple industries, with Iranian officials estimating that some two million people have lost work “directly or indirectly” due to the conflict and a prolonged nationwide internet blackout, according to a report by The New York Times.

Businesses across Iran have begun laying off workers as the country’s economy struggles under the combined pressure of war-related disruptions, sanctions, infrastructure damage, and the government-imposed internet blackout.

Iranian Deputy Labor Minister Gholamhossein Mohammadi said the conflict had already resulted in the loss of more than one million jobs and left another two million people “directly or indirectly unemployed,” according to statements given to Tasnim.

Asher Smith contributed to this report.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said a drone attacked the Zawiya oil refinery complex, the country’s largest operating refinery, on Tuesday, the fifth attack since Saturday.

The NOC said a diesel storage tank belonging to the Zawiya Oil Refining Company was hit, causing a small fire that has since been contained.

With a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day, Zawiya is the largest operational refinery in the country.

On Monday, a fire, accompanied by heavy smoke, broke out in a diesel tank oil depot at the refinery after the tank was struck, according to the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company.

Early Tuesday morning, Libya’s National Oil Corporation confirmed the facility had been struck by a drone, noting that the attack caused no casualties or damage.

Soon after, the refinery was again targeted by a drone, Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya reported.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

Israel provided the US administration with intelligence about the Iranian threat against US President Donald Trump, which included the possibility of using shoulder-fired missiles against Air Force One, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday evening, citing a US official.

According to the report, following the threat, Trump initially boarded, in full view of the media, an aircraft that had previously served as Air Force One. Shortly afterward, however, a deception operation began: The president was placed inside an airport catering truck and driven out of sight of reporters to another aircraft, a smaller military C-32A parked nearby.

Trump then departed aboard the C-32A for a US base in the UK, under the pretext that troops stationed there wanted to take photographs with the Air Force One aircraft. From there, he flew back to Washington.

The report detailed that the operation was kept so secret that even some members of Trump’s staff did not know he was traveling aboard the third aircraft. For weeks, the impression was that Trump had returned from Turkey aboard the old Air Force One after the new presidential aircraft, which had been given to the US by Qatar, was flown separately to the UK.

In fact, journalists and some White House officials, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, boarded the aircraft believing that Trump was traveling with them as usual. In reality, he had already been secretly transferred to another military aircraft and was flying separately.

The Iranian threat and the switch of aircraft were revealed last month, following initial denials, but the new report discloses for the first time the details of the deception operation carried out at the airport.

The White House declined to directly address most of the details in the report. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said the new aircraft was equipped with "high-level security protocols" intended to ensure the safety of the president and his staff.

In the wake of a spate of cyberattacks against municipal water systems in multiple US states, suspected to have been perpetrated by Iran, US officials are pushing to pass legislation aimed at fixing security gaps that leave the infrastructure vulnerable to hacks. 

California Senator Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water panel, and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar on Monday unveiled the Water Cyber Shield Act, a bill intended to fortify drinking water and wastewater systems.

The proposed legislation follows numerous warnings from the EPA itself in addition to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Government Accountability Office (GAO).

On July 22, days before a suspected Iranian cyberattack targeted over 30 municipal water systems in multiple states, US government agencies updated an April advisory emphasizing the growing threat of Iran-affiliated hacks on internet-connected systems.

In the advisory, the FBI, CISA, and US National Security Agency (NSA) noted previous incidents in which cyber threat actors linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) similarly targeted US infrastructure, drawing a connection between the water systems hacks and earlier cyberattacks.

The FBI posited that Iran-affiliated cyberattacks increased, likely in response to ongoing hostilities between Washington and Tehran.

The consequences of a mass cyberattack on drinking and wastewater infrastructure could be significantly harmful to public health, according to a GAO report on the matter. If systems that monitor and control water treatment were tampered with by malicious actors, drinking water could be contaminated with unsafe levels of bacteria or chemicals.

Aging water infrastructure paired with a lack of federal cybersecurity oversight, according to Schiff and Klobuchar, exacerbate vulnerabilities in increasingly automated, internet-connected water systems.

The Water Cyber Shield Act, if passed, would expand the EPA’s authority to conduct cybersecurity assessments and mandate corrective action when cybersecurity gaps are found.

It would also allow the EPA to establish enforceable baseline standards for the cybersecurity of drinking water and wastewater systems, with $300 million in funding allocated to bringing vulnerable systems into compliance with the standards.

Under the proposed bill, large drinking water and wastewater systems would additionally be required to integrate cybersecurity threats into their already existing risk and resilience planning.

While the EPA is the federal body responsible for risk management in the water sector, it was previously prevented from mandating cybersecurity measures.

In 2023, the EPA was forced to withdraw a memorandum addressing cybersecurity issues after multiple US states sued the agency, arguing that the EPA did not have the authority to enforce the proposed guidelines.

Rescue efforts across western Colombia carried into a second day on Tuesday as emergency workers dug through collapsed buildings and flattened homes, amid expectations that the death toll from the country’s most powerful earthquake in decades could rise.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through Colombia’s coffee-growing heartland early on Monday, killing at least 164 people.

The quake reduced multi-story buildings to rubble in cities such as Pereira and Cali, and cracked apart one of the towers of a historic cathedral in the city of Manizales.

Emergency teams aided by police, soldiers and volunteers worked through the night with excavators and, at times, their bare hands, hunting for survivors beneath debris.

In Cali, home to about 2.2 million people, at least 85 people were killed. Dozens of buildings were left leaning precariously or destroyed outright, forcing residents into the streets.

Several of the top floors of one of the city's hospitals – some dedicated to pediatric care – collapsed upon themselves, leaving some patients trapped and forcing some 600 others to be tended to on a street strewn with rubble, hospital director Irne Torres Castro told Caracol television.

Carmen Yasmin Garcia, 43, a Cali resident volunteering with rescue teams, said on Monday afternoon that her group had freed seven people from a collapsed building, but four others and a dog remained trapped.

"A moment ago there was scratching, but now we can't hear anything; we still have faith that the dog is alive and we can get these people out," Garcia said. "We need people with sticks and spades; the more people lending a hand, the better."

In Pereira, capital of the hard-hit state of Risaralda, authorities reported 66 dead.

The city also bore some of the most visible destruction, with entire residential blocks reduced to piles of concrete and twisted steel. Video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed the city’s airport violently swaying during the quake, with large chunks of the ceiling collapsing as people sheltered.

Another 13 people died in Choco, the rural province closest to the quake's epicenter.

Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella, who assumed power just days ago, said 35 people died in Cali alone, while 188 were missing. He said 1,000 members of the security forces would be deployed to the city by dawn, following reports of looting. Cali, as well as Pereira, implemented curfews on Monday night.

"Our intention is to cooperate in any way necessary. Here, there are no distinctions or ideological divisions when it comes to defending our people or showing solidarity," De La Espriella told journalists on Monday evening.

The disaster has drawn comparisons to a deadly 1999 earthquake that devastated the same coffee-growing region, killing more than 1,000 people, as well as to catastrophic quakes that killed more than 6,300 in neighboring Venezuela in June.

Australia will soon begin vaccinating its vulnerable native birds against the deadly H5N1 bird flu as the virus spreads more widely after first being detected in the country in June, the government said on Tuesday.

The vaccine rollout will begin in the "coming days and weeks," with an initial focus on priority species in captivity, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins told reporters in Canberra.

"The priority species will be identified based on vulnerability to the H5 bird flu and the potential conservation impact," Collins said.

"We've been very clear that we cannot stop the H5 bird flu from spreading amongst wild birds, but we can take action to protect the species most at risk, and the vaccination is now part of that response."

The move follows neighboring New Zealand's decision in July to begin a vaccination program for 300 core breeding birds from five of its most endangered species.

About 45% of Australia’s roughly 850 bird species are endemic, government data shows, meaning they are unique to Australia and found nowhere else on Earth.

Australia reported its first mass seabird deaths from avian influenza last week, marking an escalation of an outbreak that began after the virus was first detected in migratory seabirds before spreading to native species last month.

Australia was the last continent to report bird flu, although the virus was detected in late 2025 on the sub-Antarctic territory of Heard Island.

FIFA would be making a “terrible mistake” by replacing President Gianni Infantino, US President Donald Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social.

"He is fantastic, having just presided over the most successful World Cup, by four times, ever presented. If he is gone, it will never be as successful or profitable again!" Trump added.

Infantino has been under fire since FIFA proposed to sell stakes to external investors in a subsidiary that will run the global governing body’s tournaments.

Last month, the world soccer governing body said it plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events and will offer stakes of up to 20% in it to external investors, causing a backlash from the influential European and South American soccer confederations.

However, Swiss-born Infantino has developed a close relationship with Trump as they worked together to organize this year’s World Cup, in which the United States was one of the host countries.

Trump has said that he believes that everyone in the world respects Infantino and understands that “he has a special ability to bring people together.” Last month, The New York Post reported that he wants the FIFA president to replace António Guterres, the current United Nations secretary-general, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Trump also asked Infantino to review a red-card foul against USA striker Folarin Balogun during the World Cup, saying that he did not think the foul called by the “horrible” referee was fair.

FIFA proceeded to reverse the foul, prompting European soccer body UEFA to say that the "unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision" crossed a "red line."

Additionally, in December, Infantino awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.

Corinne Baum, Eitan Elias, and Reuters contributed to this report.

The next round of Israel-Lebanon talks is set to be held at the beginning of September, a US official told Saudi state-owned Al-Arabiya English on Tuesday morning.

Hezbollah is still seeking to disrupt the peace process between the countries, said the official, adding that Washington remains optimistic about the talks.

The discussions between the countries have included talks on a third country demining certain areas, the official reportedly said.

Most recently, officials from the two countries met in Rome, with talks having concluded on August 6. There, representatives discussed Hezbollah's disarmament, the pilot program for Israeli withdrawal, and plans for a "comprehensive peace and security agreement," a State Department spokesperson said after the first day.

Hezbollah denounced those talks, with Secretary-General Naim Qassem saying that the talks would bring "nothing but shame, humiliation, and successive compromises" for Lebanon. Qassem also condemned Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, dubbing him a divisive figure.

Hezbollah has opposed the direct Israel-Lebanon talks since they began in April. Since then, the countries have met several times to discuss an end to the long-standing conflict between them.

In Rome, Israeli officials brought up the possibility of transferring buried Jewish bodies in Lebanon to Israel for burial in exchange for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar reported on Monday. 

These bodies lie buried in cemeteries in Beirut and Sidon, the report said. Both cities historically featured vibrant Jewish communities, though almost none remain there to this day.

James Genn, Idan Kweller, and Shir Perets contributed to this report.

A fire, accompanied by heavy smoke, broke out on Monday in a diesel tank oil depot at Libya’s Zawiya refinery after the tank was struck under circumstances whose cause remains unknown, Brega Petroleum Marketing Company said in a statement.

Brega is owned by state oil firm NOC and is in charge of fuel supplies.

Zawiya refinery, the largest in the country as Ras Lanuf is out of operation, around 40 km (25 miles) west of Tripoli, has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. It is connected to the country's 300,000 ⁠bpd Sharara oilfield.

Firefighter brigades are working on containing the blaze, the company said, adding that it was assessing the damage and would provide updates once confirmed information became available.

The tank, with an estimated 4.5 million liters of gasoline, "was directly targeted," NOC said in a statement, declaring the extreme state of emergency in the area.

It demanded that competent authorities "immediately intervene" and launch investigations into the incident.

Unverified footage posted on the internet showed huge blazes and thick black smoke billowing in the sky in Zawiya city.

The refinery is still functioning without any suspension, two engineers working at the refinery said.

The incident came two days after a drone crashed into an untreated naphtha tank at the Zawiya refinery early on Saturday, causing a leak that staff managed to control.

Austria has broken up a scheme in which a Vienna-based company supplied equipment used to make engines for Russian missiles and fighter jets, in breach of European Union sanctions, the interior ministry said on Monday.

The company falsified end-user certificates to supply the equipment under sanctions, including special metalworking tools and CNC machines, which can be used to make parts and tools, the ministry said in a statement. It added that the 28-year-old Belarusian head of the company was arrested in May.

The company, which the ministry did not name, concealed its shipments through a network of shell companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Poland and Lithuania, the ministry said.

"It is unacceptable for high-precision European technology to be diverted towards the production of cruise missiles and air-defense systems," Austria's junior minister in charge of intelligence, Joerg Leichtfried, said.

"We will continue to take decisive action … against those actors who attempt to circumvent legal bans on supporting the Russian arms industry."

The equipment was supplied to companies affiliated with Russian state industrial conglomerate Rostec, the ministry said. Investigators’ latest findings indicate the goods were used to make military equipment, including engines for cruise missiles and fighter jets.

The Russian embassy in Vienna declined to comment. Rostec did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On the same day the chief suspect was arrested, authorities seized CNC machines and specialized tools worth about €140,000 ($162,000), the ministry said. The suspect, who was not named, remains in custody while the investigation continues.

Evidence seized during four raids in August last year indicated that industrial goods worth more than €3.3 million had been delivered to Russian arms manufacturers since 2022, the ministry added.