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Aug 9, 2026 - World

Israeli PM says IDF will not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed and rebukes US pressure to end wars without his country’s buy-inIsrael’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed 15-point peace plan for Gaza in a rare public break with Donald Trump.In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said that he was confronting a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and rebuked US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s buy-in. Continue reading...

Aug 9, 2026 - World

This live blog is now closed.Israel rejects US-led 15-point Gaza peace plan, says NetanyahuIsraeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Gaza plan hailed by US president Donald Trump, vowing no military pullout of Gaza until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed. The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.Here are the other key updates from today:The US must pressure Israel to accept the next phase of the Gaza plan, a Hamas official said, after Netanyahu rejected the US-backed agreement. “We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said.A Houthi drone salvo targeted a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea coast. The Iran-backed group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jazan on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast with a drone”.Attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen killed at least four troops from the internationally-recognised government forces and injured 20 more personnel, two military sources said. The initial toll came from strikes on the Yemeni city of Mokha and surrounding areas, as well as Khokha, south of the port city of Hodeida, the sources said on condition of anonymity, after the Houthis announced they had targeted military forces and equipment on the Red Sea coast.Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian met the country’s supreme ⁠leader Mojtaba Khamenei around the start of the president’s third year in office in late July, state ⁠media said, ⁠and ​a paramilitary leader promised footage of Khamenei in the future. Khamenei was reportedly seriously injured in the ​February strike that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The promise to release footage of the leader by paramilitary Basij ⁠Organisation deputy Qasem Qoraishi appeared to be aimed ​at quashing speculation about his health. Continue reading...

Aug 9, 2026 - World

British Columbia battling 102 fires day and night across province, as breakneck speed hampers firefighters’ effortsCanada’s federal government has announced it will provide urgent assistance to British Columbia after an onslaught of unprecedented fast-moving wildfires that killed one person and forced about 22,000 people to flee their homes in frantic evacuations.A total of 102 wildfires were raging across the province on Sunday, of which nearly half were categorised as “out of control”, according to the BC Wildfire Service. Of those fires, 78 ignited during the past week. Continue reading...

Aug 9, 2026 - World

Tropical cyclone brings torrential rain and high winds to east coast after hitting Japan’s southern Okinawa provinceTyphoon Dolphin, the most powerful tropical cyclone to hit China this year, has made landfall on the country’s east coast, bringing torrential rain and strong ⁠winds and triggering warnings ​of flooding and landslides.The storm has already swept through Japan’s southern Okinawa prefecture, injuring six people and cutting power to more than 50,000 buildings. Continue reading...

Aug 9, 2026 - World

Drone strike comes after Riyadh signs defence pact and Tehran issues tough demands to reopen strait of HormuzYemen’s Tehran-aligned Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on a refinery in Saudi Arabia, two days after the kingdom signed ⁠a defence pact with Turkey ⁠and Pakistan in response to ​growing regional instability caused by the US-Israel war on Iran.The attack early on Sunday came after Iran said tough new demands would have to be met before it would reopen the strait of Hormuz, and after the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships had been targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the waterway remained out of reach. Continue reading...