World
Blinken says Israel accepts Biden cease-fire proposal, calls on Hamas to do the same
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday “accepted” President Biden’s cease-fire plan that could end the 10-month war in Gaza, but whether the fighting actually stops depends on Hamas.
Speaking to reporters from Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the proposal put forward last week by the White House in coordination with leaders from Qatar and Egypt looked to “bridge the gaps” between the warring parties and has been “accepted” by Netanyahu.
“He supports it,” Blinken said. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”
“The parties – with the help of the mediators, the United States, Egypt and Qatar – have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they’ll implement the commitments that they’ve made under this agreement,” he added.
ISRAELI OFFICIALS CONFIRM TEL AVIV BOMBING WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK, HAMAS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY
Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Aug. 19, 2024. (Office of the Prime Minister)
Blinken did not give specifics on what was included in the proposal and Netanyahu has not yet formally agreed to any cease-fire at this time.
Blinken said both Jerusalem and Hamas have “complex issues” that will “require hard decisions” before the war can truly be considered over.
“But there is, I think, a real sense of urgency here across the region on the need to get this over the finish line and to do it as soon as possible,” Blinken added. “The United States is deeply committed to getting this job done – getting it done now.”
Relatives of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and their supporters protest near the hotel where Secretary of State Antony Blinken is staying during his visit to Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
BLINKEN ARRIVES IN MIDDLE EAST TO RENEW CEASE-FIRE NEGOTIATIONS IN GAZA
The news that Netanyahu had “accepted” the terms put forward in the proposal came after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting between Blinken and the Israeli prime minister, as well as months of negotiations.
The proposal is expected to include language to ensure the release of all hostages who have been held since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
It remains unclear if the proposal omitted Israeli control over strategic corridors inside Gaza, like the Philadelphi Route that runs between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, and which Hamas has said is a non-starter when it comes to any peace agreement.
A destroyed building along the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone that runs the length of the Gaza-Egypt border. (Photo: TPS-IL.) (TPS-IL)
Though according to a report by the Times of Israel, an official familiar with the meeting between Netanyahu and Blinken,”the Americans did not reject Israel’s strategic logic.”
The official said Israel remains firm in its position that the route is a security issue while Hamas continues to exist.
A terrorist from Hamas takes part in a military parade. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo)
Blinken’s visit to Israel concluded his ninth trip to the Middle East since the war began, and the secretary is set to head to Egypt and Qatar in the coming days.
Concern remains heightened in the region that a greater regional war could break out amid threats from Iran and other Islamic extremist groups like Hezbollah.
World
At least nine killed after Iranian strike on Israel’s Beit Shemesh
BREAKINGBREAKING,
The Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service says that 20 others were injured by the impact.
Published On 1 Mar 2026
At least nine people have been killed after an Iranian missile strike on the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, as Tehran continued to launch retaliatory attacks a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli strikes.
The Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said on Sunday that nine people were killed and 20 other people were injured by the impact, including two in serious condition.
The Israeli military said in a statement that search and rescue teams, and a helicopter to evacuate those injured are currently operating in Beit Shemesh, with the army’s spokesperson adding that the circumstances of the impact from the Iranian ballistic missile are under review.
More to come …
World
Sombr Altercation at Brit Awards Was Staged, Rep Confirms
Sombr was mid-performance at the Brit Awards when a random man bumrushed the stage and pushed the singer off the platform, leaving him stunned — only it was all planned, says his rep.
The singer-songwriter, who was nominated for international artist and international song, was at the end of his smash single “Undressed” when a man joined him on the podium and shoved him hard. Security guards aggressively removed the man from the stage, and Sombr returned to the microphone to segue into his next song.
Shortly after the performance came to a close, Sombr’s rep confirmed to Variety that the whole thing was part of the act. Fans were already split online over whether the incident was staged or real. Naysayers noticed that the offender was wearing a shirt that read “Sombr is a homewrecker” — a nod to his latest single “Homewrecker,” which some claimed was a dead giveaway. But others weren’t necessarily convinced it was a stunt, considering how hard he was pushed and how additional security guards came to his rescue.
Brits host Jack Whitehall remarked on the incident after Sombr’s performance concluded. “Such a shame we didn’t have the security ready,” he said.
The incident took place just days after Britain’s BAFTA Awards last Sunday, when John Davidson, the Scottish Tourette’s syndrome activist and real-life inspiration for the film “I Swear,” disrupted that ceremony with an outburst of racial slurs that occurred as “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage. “I can’t begin to explain how upset and distraught I have been as the impact from Sunday sinks in,” Davidson told Variety earlier this week.
Whitehall made a joking reference to that incident — which was not bleeped from the initial BAFTA broadcast and was audible to viewers — at the top of the Brits, saying “We’ve got the best in the business on the bleep button.”
Sombr is coming off a red-hot year that saw his various singles “Undressed,” “Back to Friends” and “12 to 12” impact the charts. He recently performed at the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated for best new artist alongside Addison Rae, Alex Warren, the Marías, Leon Thomas, Lola Young, Katseye and Olivia Dean, who ended up taking home the award.
World
Iran goes dark amid ‘regime paranoia’, blackout follows Israeli, US strikes on compound
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Iran was plunged into an internet blackout Saturday after Israel and the U.S. launched military strikes around the country, according to a global internet monitor.
Within hours of the strikes — which officials said targeted infrastructure and killed dozens of senior regime figures at a compound in Tehran— NetBlocks CEO Alp Toker confirmed connectivity started “flatlining.”
“We’re tracking the ongoing blackout, but our assessment is that this is straight out of Iran’s wartime playbook and consistent both technically and strategically with what we saw during the 2025 Twelve-Day War with Israel,” Toker told Fox News Digital.
“Iran’s internet connectivity is now flatlining around the 1% level, so the original blackout the regime imposed during the morning has been consolidated,” he confirmed.
“The blackout was imposed just after 7:00 UTC, not long after the attack on the Iranian regime compound,” Toker clarified, adding that Iran had been largely offline for approximately 12 hours following the attack.
“At 06:10 UTC, there is the main compound strike; at 07:10 UTC, telecoms disruption starts; at 08:00 UTC, the blackout is largely in effect; and by 08:30 UTC, connectivity flatlines.”
“Wartime national blackouts are exceedingly rare around the world, and it’s something we’ve only really seen at this scale in Iran,” he said.
President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Iran following an Israeli strike in Tehran on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (@WhiteHouse/X)
In the wake of the attack, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the “heavy and pinpoint” bombing in Iran “will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
He claimed Iranian security forces and members of the regime’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were already seeking immunity. He urged them to “peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.”
“We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces no longer want to fight and are looking for Immunity from us,” Trump said in the post. “As I said last night, ‘Now they can have Immunity; later they only get Death!’”
Toker argued the timing of the blackout suggested it was imposed deliberately as the regime sought to secure communications amid fears of further targeting.
TRUMP TELLS IRANIANS THE ‘HOUR OF YOUR FREEDOM IS AT HAND’ AS US-ISRAEL LAUNCH STRIKES AGAINST IRAN
TEHRAN, IRAN – FEBRUARY 28: Smoke rises over the city center after an Israeli army launches 2nd wave of airstrikes on Iran on February 28, 2026. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Iranian regime will have deployed this new blackout to counter potential cyberattacks during their own military operation, but also to avoid leaking the locations of senior regime figures through metadata and user-generated content,” he said.
“Communications would have been limited, and Iran’s leadership would have proceeded with the assumption that all communications, including satellite or whitelisted networks, carry risks,” he said before claiming that “paranoia would be well grounded at this point, with the blackout a belated but direct response to that.”
“Those participating directly would already know to avoid technology that could betray their whereabouts,” Toker said.
“However, the metadata may well have played a part in determining that the meeting of regime leaders was being held at the Tehran compound, who was in attendance, and at what time.”
DID THEY GET HIM? KHAMENEI’S FATE REMAINS UNKNOWN AFTER ISRAEL-US STRIKE LEVELS HIS COMPOUND
In this handout image provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation in a state television broadcast on June 18, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)
Toker revealed that the broader network around the regime leaders and around the compound wouldn’t have had the same strict restrictions.
“This kind of adjacent ‘background noise’ can be correlated against other intelligence sources to build an understanding of activity on the ground,” he added.
“Smartphones are a readily available, almost ‘free’ source of intelligence, and even when locked down, they eventually connect to international online services and generate insights that can be used to pinpoint regime figures,” Toker said.
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“In the aftermath of Saturday’s strike, this concern will have been high on the remaining Iranian leadership’s minds, especially if they didn’t have a clear and specific understanding of how the meeting was compromised.”
Iran has previously imposed sweeping internet shutdowns during periods of domestic unrest, including nationwide protests in January, which saw thousands killed, often seeking to curb the spread of information and restrict coordination.
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