KOENIG

The British Consulate in Jerusalem, which Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar last month said would be shuttered, will be renamed the UK Mission, Jerusalem, and operate from the same building with a smaller staff, according to statements published on Thursday by Jerusalem and London.

Twenty diplomats, including the consul general, will end their assignments and leave Israel, Sa’ar said. The consulate’s sign has been removed. Britain retains ownership of the building and may operate a small task force there, Sa’ar said.

“We have allowed the British Government to operate a task force of only seven diplomats from the building, which ceased to function as a consulate today. Their scope of activity will be very limited,” he wrote.

Tropical Storm Isaias is forecast to track northeastward and quickly ramp up to a hurricane while over the central Gulf. Landfall along the central Gulf Coast is expected Friday night as a strong Category 2 storm.

AccuWeather Hurricane Experts say this will become the first hurricane of the 2026 season, making it the latest first hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin in over 100 years.

Waters in the Gulf are well into the 80s F, which will provide plenty of fuel and help Isaias strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks directly toward the Gulf Coast of the United States.

(photo: Anadolu via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump emphasized the need to defend American cities against potential Iranian aggression Wednesday, warning of catastrophic consequences if Tehran were to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“You want to see problems—and I said it the other day—let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles on the way. Let them hit—you want to see a horror show?” Trump said in San Antonio, Texas.

“You want to see a country that would be in freefall,” Trump said, asserting that Tehran would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons.

“We're not going to let that happen. We protect our cities. We protect our country. We're not letting that happen. And they'd use it, too. They'd use it. They would use it,” he added.

Iran must cut uranium erichment if it wants the war to end, US Vice President JD Vance said during a trip to Alaska.

"If you don't want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60% enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don't build highly enriched fuel. That's a very basic threshold issue," Vance said.

"I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity."

Tropical Depression Nine has formed off the coast of Mexico in the Gulf of America, and forecasts show it will be the Atlantic's first hurricane this season, making a dangerous landfall threat to the U.S. 

The system is currently getting better organized, and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it is forecast to be a tropical storm on Wednesday and a hurricane on Thursday. 

The NHC said the system is likely to be a Category 2 hurricane by Friday night, with estimated winds at 100 mph.

Brazil is heading for another Lula-Bolsonaro showdown. But this time it is Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son Flávio who stands between leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and another term in power.

A Bolsonaro victory would push the region further towards the right, hand US President Donald Trump a powerful ideological ally and potentially strengthen Washington’s hand as it seeks to counter China’s influence across the hemisphere.

For Lula, 80, the runoff vote leaves one of Latin America’s most prominent left-wing leaders fighting for what would likely be his last term if he wins.

Yemen and Saudi forces launched Operation Yemeni Dawn to retake the Bab el-Mandeb strait on October 5. This comes after government forces lost control of the strait to the Houthis in early September.

The strait has become increasingly important since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran due to many oil export routes being rerouted through the Bab el-Mandeb.

Saudi Arabia re-entered the war following repeated Houthi attacks on Saudi oil refineries and export depots.

Ministers of the Security-Diplomatic Cabinet (Israel's top security and diplomatic forum) got a sobering briefing Sunday. Fears of a "multi-arena event" resurfaced as defense chiefs described the security situation as tense across every front, from Gaza to Iran. "Hamas is constantly ready for offensive actions at the operational level," officials in the defense establishment said. Shin Bet chief David Zini went further, warning of a possible link between Hamas and members of the Iranian-led axis, including possibly with the Houthi movement in Yemen as well.

The head of the IDF Operations Directorate delivered what sounded like good news on the ground campaign. "We have cleared 95% of the tunnels between the Yellow Line (the current military demarcation line in Gaza) and the border," he told the ministers, noting that the effort remains in full swing. The ministers pushed back gently, replying that the figure applies only to tunnels already found, and others may still be hidden.

Senior intelligence officials also revisited Saturday's strike targeting senior Hamas official Ali al-Amoudi. The outcome remains unclear. "If we didn't succeed, we will try again," they said flatly.

The United States rushed over the weekend to withdraw all 12 B-1 Air Force bombers from an air base in southern England after commanders received new threats about an Iran-backed plot against the installation, two U.S. officials said on Sunday.

The withdrawal was highly unusual: Such moves are rarely made so quickly from an allied air base in a peacetime country thousands of miles from a combat zone.

The need to move the bombers out of the base, R.A.F. Fairford, was deemed so urgent that some of the planes and their flight crews left while aerial refueling aircraft were still being scrambled to support their flights to the United States.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he intends to expand Israel's naval capabilities after hearing from defense officials about Israel's need for additional submarines, ships, and more during a visit to the Ashdod Naval Base.

Netanyahu was accompanied on his visit to the base by Defense Minister Israel Katz. The Naval Chief of Staff and Commander of the Ashdod Base briefed Netanyahu on the challenges in the naval arena and the operations of forces in the southern sector, including the patrol squadron and the landing craft company.

During the visit, the Prime Minister and Defense Minister were also presented with a display of the weapons used by the forces to contend with threats against Israel, both in defensive and offensive operations.

The investigation into the attempted terrorist attack aboard a flydubai flight has raised questions over security screening conducted in both the United Arab Emirates and Israel regarding the identity and ideology of co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami. One of the central lines of inquiry is whether he acted as a lone terrorist or was backed by a terrorist organization. An Israeli investigative team has joined the investigation in the UAE in an effort to obtain a complete picture of the case.

Israel Hayom has learned from sources familiar with the investigation that authorities are examining a possible Iranian connection through a Syrian terrorist group established by Iran during the Assad regime in the course of Syria's civil war. According to investigators, the group may still be active in the country.

Al-Hammami, whose mother is Syrian, spent several years in Syria, where he underwent a process of religious radicalization and Islamist indoctrination. The investigation indicates that he was likely recruited by the terrorist group during that period. If the findings are confirmed, they would bolster the assessment that he was recruited specifically to carry out an attack using an aircraft, similar to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

Two members of Iran’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly were “kicked out” of the U.S. after failing to comply with a State Department order to leave the country.

“Secretary Rubio means business. Two more members of the Iranian delegation were found still in New York long after the UN General Assembly had passed. They have now been kicked out of the country,” a U.S. official told Fox News Digital.

The State Department ordered Iran’s entire delegation to leave the U.S. immediately on Monday, but the two diplomats remained in New York, according to an Axios report.

(photo: Reuters)

The US military is planning a potential increase of thousands of naval forces in the Middle East in the coming weeks, the Washington Post reported on Friday. 

The Pentagon intends to move up three aircraft carriers and escort ships into the region to create flexibility in overseeing the war, according to the report.

The planning comes as US President Donald Trump’s administration deliberates on how to approach the Iran war, which has now entered its eighth month, causing dissatisfaction among the American public and roiling the global economy, according to the WP. 

(photo: AP)

Anwar Gargash, an adviser to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, on Friday described the attempted crashing of a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv earlier in the week as an “act of terrorism,” becoming the first senior Emirati official to publicly characterize the incident as a terror attack.

In a post on X, Gargash praised Indian pilot Smit Machchhar, who was stabbed several times by his Omani copilot as part of the latter’s alleged attempt to crash the plane. Machchhar still managed to open the cockpit door, allowing three Israeli passengers to rush in and subdue the attack, and one of them to stabilize the plane, before off-duty pilots on the plane were able to carry out an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

Gargash wrote that Machchhar deserved recognition because he “showed the meaning of courage when he confronted a dangerous and potentially catastrophic act of terrorism.”

The Trump administration has decided to deploy a third aircraft carrier to the Middle East, along with a second Marine division, a US official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. 

The USS Theodore Roosevelt and an additional division of US Marines will deploy to US Central Command's area of operations.

The move means that, until the US midterm elections, US President Donald Trump will have significantly greater military capabilities and a wider range of options for potential action against Iran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly ended talks and ordered the Iranian delegation to leave the U.S. after negotiations stalled, yet again, with no clear sign of a breakthrough more than seven months into the conflict, an official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

And now, President Donald Trump is directly warning Iran it's "possible" he will go harder with strikes in the Middle East after the midterm elections in November and revealed the U.S. military has significantly rebuilt its arsenal in recent months.

The latest messaging from the White House and State Department signals an increasingly strained diplomatic track, after days of negotiations failed to close the gap between Washington and Tehran over the terms of ending the war.