US politics AS IT HAPPENED: Israel bluntly rejects US plan for Gaza peace

The Board of Peace’s top envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, has spoken on Israeli TV after Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected the proposed Gaza peace plan.

“Nobody is required to do anything, least of all Israel, before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” he told Channel 12.

“If there is verified decommissioning of weapons, that they are taken away from the factions and stored and ultimately rendered unusable, Israel then withdraws from Gaza.”

But Mladenov still pushed for the peace deal as a long-term solution.

“If we end up with arguments about this and that, and delaying tactics, I can assure you that the only alternative then is another process of rearming of Hamas and increasing the risk of another October 7,” he said.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command intercepted two aircraft that broke into no-fly zones while President Trump watched a golf tournament in New Jersey.

“NORAD F-16s intercepted multiple general aviation aircraft today that violated temporary flight restrictions over Bedminster, NJ,” the security body said on X.

“All aircraft were safely escorted out of the area by NORAD aircraft.”

Reuters reported that the timing coincided with a visit by Trump to his golf course in Bedminster to watch an LIV golf event.

Previously unseen video of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been released by state news agencies, as rumours continue to swell about his wellbeing.

Khamenei, who ascended to the post after his father Ali Khamenei was killed in the war’s opening strikes, has not been seen in public since the conflict began.

It’s understood he was injured in the same strikes that killed his father, with varying reports suggesting he was in need of reconstructive surgery or even prosthetics.

Semi-official news agency Mehr in recent hours released undated footage showing an apparently unhurt Khamenei speaking a group of unidentified men.

The time of the recording of the 12-second clip has not been verified, nor did Mehr issue a timestamp.

Iranian media has published a number of reports about senior officials meeting with Khamenei, with IRNA and Mehr today both reporting President Masoud Pezeshkian had sat down with the supreme leader.

“The talks focused on the people’s livelihood and the current domestic conditions, in the face of the US–Israeli-imposed war and the future course of action, especially in the defense field,” IRNA reported, citing the Leader’s Office as a source.

“Strategies and solutions regarding the provision of resources and management of monetary and energy expenditures, as well as economic interaction with foreign parties, were other issues Pezeshkian exchanged with the Leader.”

Oil prices have risen again on the back of downplayed negotiation status between the US and Iran, as well as the latter’s recent escalation in peace demands.

Futures for Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, lifted 1.2 per cent to US$84.58 ($119.70) a barrel.

Traffic remains depressed through the Strait of Hormuz, though Iran says it’s close to finalising a deal with Oman on approved navigation through the channel.

This doesn’t mean, as Iranian sources have confirmed, that they’ll be relaxing their military control over the strait.

Another day, another Truth Social troll. Never let it be said the president doesn’t know how to needle his foes.

Trump posted a short clip of a blue flag seemingly flying from a boat, emblazoned with the slogan “KING TRUMP 2028”.

Trump’s not been backwards about the possibility of running for a third term, despite the constitutional barriers to do so.

Of course, mileage varies on how seriously he should be taken.

Opponents say it’s another attempt to undermine the US democratic system. His more mainstream supporters, including political allies, say Trump is merely trying to unsettle the Left.

And then of course there’s the die-hard MAGA fans who, maybe, wouldn’t mind so much if he was serious.

Trump has once again set his sites on former US Olympian David Hearn, accusing him of vandalising the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Hearn was arrested in July and accused of vandalising the pool, the renovation of which has been one of Trump’s main pet projects in his second term.

Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist, denied the vandalism charges, saying he had simply fished out a piece of lining that had peeled away from the pool’s basin - a phenomenon previously reported by others.

Charges against Hearn were dropped last week after Trump-appointed DC attorney Jeanine Pirro asked the court to move to dismiss them, saying there was solid evidence any damage to the pool had been caused by shoddy and rushed reconstruction efforts.

Trump lashed Pirro on that occasion and is evidently not over it.Today, he’s posted a section of statements from two National Parks employees who speak about an unnamed man who was arrested while “violently” vandalising the pool.

“A National Park Service career employee, a highly credible witness, saw David Hearn (ActBlue) in broad daylight vandalise the Reflecting Pool by ‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating,” Trump wrote.

“The National Park Service employee provided this witness testimony to the US Attorney’s Office in early July, as seen below.”

The “(ActBLue)” snipe is a reference to a widely-cited claim on right-wing media that Hearn is a donor to Democratic and progressive causes, which, even if true, does not serve as evidence of guilt.

“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” Trump wrote.

“We are working on the Pool, and it will reopen shortly.”

Iran has named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported.

Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.

It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March.

Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

It was Zolghadr who yesterday unveiled new Iranian demands for the US to end the war, including compensation for war damage, immediate release of frozen Iranian assets, and a full US military withdrawal.

Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorised route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran’s assertion of control.

Hamas says it remains committed to the plan for a Gaza peace, even as Israel has explicitly rejected the same.

“We remain committed to the road map,” Bassem Naim from Hamas’s political bureau said, according to the Associated Press.

But he said the group expected the US to pressure Israel to follow along with the 15-point plan, which involves staged withdrawals from Gaza as Hamas disarms and a new Palestinian security force is established.

Netanyahu, facing political pressure from hardliners in his governing coalition ahead of this year’s election, said Israel would determine what is in its own national security interest.

Trump has seized on an old endorsement from one of his great US political rivals to press his plan for peace in Gaza.

While Trump has not directly responded to Netanyahu’s rejection of the Board of Peace’s 15-point proposal, he did post a link to a June article in the Financial Times by Hillary Clinton which supported the Board’s initial plan.

Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump, said at the time while there was reason to be sceptical of the Board’s proposal, it offered a way forward on a previously intractable conflict.

In his Truth Social Post, Trump even quoted his erstwhile rival.

“The world may not like Trump’s Gaza plan — but there is no alternative (…) If even I, an implacable opponent of the president, can accept this as the best option, then surely others can too?”

Clinton has not commented on the more recent 15-point plan, but the Board of Peace’s stated goals for Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawal have remained broadly consistent.