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Iran Said to Have Hacked Gantz' Cellphone

Former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz speaks to the media, March 15, 2019, REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz speaks to the media, March 15, 2019, REUTERS/Amir Cohen
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Iran Said to Have Hacked Gantz' Cellphone

Former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz speaks to the media, March 15, 2019, REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz speaks to the media, March 15, 2019, REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Iranian intelligence hacked the mobile phone of former military Chief of Staff and head of Blue and White party Benny Gantz, revealed political circles in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Gantz is the toughest rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the forthcoming Knesset elections.

A source leaked the news to a reporter at Channel 12 saying that two top officials in Israel’s Shin Bet met with Gantz five weeks ago and told him that Iranian intelligence had hacked his phone.

Shin Bet agents warned Gantz that any sensitive information could be used against him in the future and told him to proceed as he sees fit.

Channel 12 correspondent Amit Segal reported that the mobile content, including personal details and private and professional texts, were now in the hands of Iranian intelligence. He further noted that no classified information is likely to have been on the device.

Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud Barak referred to the probability that Netanyahu might be behind the leak, stressing that the purpose is to defame Gantz in front of voters; and not protect Israel against the Iranian intelligence.

Barak added that Iran doesn’t need superpowers to hack a mobile phone, and Gantz has been a former military chief of staff for four years now and “there is nothing on the device that is sensitive for national security.”

The Blue and White party reacted in a statement saying: “We do not respond to issues at the heart of national security. It must be said that the incident in question took place approximately four years after the end of chief of staff Gantz’s term.”

The party also said that the publication of the news of the hack at this point in the campaign “raises many questions.”

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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”