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Netanyahu Offers Rome Gas in Exchange for Embassy

Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference following their meeting on March 10, 2023 at Palazzo Chigi in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference following their meeting on March 10, 2023 at Palazzo Chigi in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
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Netanyahu Offers Rome Gas in Exchange for Embassy

Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference following their meeting on March 10, 2023 at Palazzo Chigi in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni and Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference following their meeting on March 10, 2023 at Palazzo Chigi in Rome. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a deal to sell Rome Israeli gas for a lower price in return for recognizing Israel’s annexation of Eastern Jerusalem, declaring Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel, and moving its embassy from Tel Aviv.

“I believe the time has come for Rome to recognize Jerusalem as the ancestral capital of the Jewish people for three thousand years, as the United States did with a gesture of great friendship,” Netanyahu told Meloni in Rome.

“We are already cooperating in gas with your national company (energy giant ENI) but we want to expand it,” he told Italian Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso.

“I think we should look very carefully and quickly at the possibility of adding an LNG facility, perhaps in Cyprus, to increase Israel’s export capacities of gas to Italy, and from Italy to Europe.”

“I think [gas] is a strategic need of Italy and Europe, and Israel is prepared to do more with you for that end,” said Netanyahu.

Urso welcomed his comments, saying: “Italy aims to become the European gas hub and Israel must be the point of strength for gas production.”

Italy - like many other European countries - has been working to break its reliance on Russian gas since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, according to Urso.

Other options to bring Israeli gas to Europe include the EastMed project, the construction of a largely underwater pipeline nearly 1,900 kilometers long, to connect Israel’s offshore gas fields with southern Europe through Cyprus and Greece.

The gas would then be transported via the Poseidon pipeline. But the six-billion-euro project is only expected to be up and running sometime between 2025 and 2027.

Israel began producing and exporting gas after discovering several reservoirs off its coast in the early 2010s. But it lacks a gas pipeline to connect its drilling platforms in the Mediterranean to southern Europe.

“I would like to see more economic cooperation… and I believe closer interactions with your companies will be good for both of us,” Netanyahu said in an interview on Thursday with la Repubblica.

He added, “And we have natural gas: we have plenty of it and I would like to talk about how to bring it to Italy to support its economic growth.”

Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Berlin from Wednesday to Friday where he would meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

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World

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Will Leave at the Month’s End

FILE - White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt watches as President Donald Trump speak to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt watches as President Donald Trump speak to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Will Leave at the Month’s End

FILE - White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt watches as President Donald Trump speak to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt watches as President Donald Trump speak to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave the administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to hold the role. She was a press aide during Trump's first term and has been one of the most visible advocates of his “Make America Great Again” movement. Trump did not outline any plans for who might replace her, The Associated Press said.

Meanwhile, Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Türkiye because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted did not scare him.

He downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

World

Iran Says Strait of Hormuz is Under Its Control

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-US billboard at the Enghelab square in central Tehran, Iran, 13 August 2026. Tensions between Iran and the US remain high as opposing claims persist over shipping control in the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-US billboard at the Enghelab square in central Tehran, Iran, 13 August 2026. Tensions between Iran and the US remain high as opposing claims persist over shipping control in the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Iran Says Strait of Hormuz is Under Its Control

An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-US billboard at the Enghelab square in central Tehran, Iran, 13 August 2026. Tensions between Iran and the US remain high as opposing claims persist over shipping control in the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks next to an anti-US billboard at the Enghelab square in central Tehran, Iran, 13 August 2026. Tensions between Iran and the US remain high as opposing claims persist over shipping control in the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

The Strait of Hormuz is "under Iran's control and management", the head of Iran's Basij paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, said on Thursday, according to the semi-official Fars news ‌agency.

The remarks ‌came a day ‌after ⁠US President Donald ⁠Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the US had "total control" of the strategic waterway.

Taeb said the United States ⁠had sought to ‌disrupt ‌what he described as Iran’s popularity in the ‌region by launching another war in the Strait of Hormuz, but had once ‌more been defeated despite claiming Iran had neither an ⁠air ⁠force nor a navy.

"Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic," Taeb said, adding that Iran was continuing on its course in complete security.

World

Colombia Enters ‘Final Phase’ of Quake Search as Toll Hits 265

This aerial view shows heavy machinery used by rescuers in the search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Pereira, Colombia on August 12, 2026. (AFP)
This aerial view shows heavy machinery used by rescuers in the search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Pereira, Colombia on August 12, 2026. (AFP)
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Colombia Enters ‘Final Phase’ of Quake Search as Toll Hits 265

This aerial view shows heavy machinery used by rescuers in the search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Pereira, Colombia on August 12, 2026. (AFP)
This aerial view shows heavy machinery used by rescuers in the search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Pereira, Colombia on August 12, 2026. (AFP)

Rescuers in Colombia were making last-ditch efforts to locate earthquake survivors early Thursday, as the critical 72-hour window for rescue operations neared its end.

The magnitude 7.4 quake, the strongest to hit Colombia this century, has killed 265 people, injured more than 3,500 and left almost 500 missing, according to local authorities.

In cities such as Cali and Pereira, emergency crews worked through a third night with their bare hands, cranes and sniffer dogs, stopping not to rest but to listen for signs of life.

Thursday morning will mark 72 hours since the quake, a period when survivors are considered most likely to be found alive beneath collapsed buildings.

Cali resident Martha Perez said she felt "helpless" as two relatives were thought to still be trapped under rubble.

"We will hold on to (hope) until the very end," Perez told AFP on Wednesday night.

"As you can see, all of us here -- the entire city of Cali -- are hoping to find more survivors," volunteer rescuer Fernando Loaiza said.

Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder said Wednesday that rescue efforts were "entering the final phase."

Colombia's newly installed president Abelardo de la Espriella has declared the disaster an "economic emergency" and announced three days of national mourning.

"We will do what is necessary," he said in a statement, vowing to "emerge again as a country and as a society."

More than 11,000 dwellings have been destroyed and thousands of families have been rendered homeless, according to official figures.

- Holding onto 'hope' -

In Pereira, crews focused on a collapsed bakery where they believe a street vendor trapped since Monday's earthquake may still be alive beneath the rubble.

Rescuers using equipment that detects vibrations said they had picked up possible signs of life from Pablo Loaiza, prompting anxious relatives to gather near the wreckage.

"They tell us it could be him," said his 16-year-old niece, Sara Loaiza. "My heart is about to burst out of my chest."

Relatives said the trapped man appeared to respond when rescuers asked him to knock twice, then three times from beneath the rubble, drawing applause from those gathered at the scene.

"Every half hour we make everyone be quiet to see if we can find people alive," volunteer rescuer Johana Sanchez told AFP.

"So far, three people have been pulled out alive and three dead."

Many have already spent consecutive nights outdoors, either because their homes were damaged or because they feared aftershocks.

In the town of Roldanillo, Yuliana Mendez picked through the wreckage of the beauty products store where she worked, one of many businesses damaged in the disaster.

"It's like starting over from scratch," she said.

In Pereira's Providencia neighborhood, residents hauled furniture and household items from damaged buildings. Among them was lawyer Ana Paulina Crosthwaite, whose apartment block was left unsafe by the quake.

"We're in a state of shock," she told AFP. "We're not prepared to tell our children that we have to pack whatever we can and start a new life."

Many Colombians have mobilized to help, bringing water, food and supplies to affected neighborhoods, while long lines formed outside blood donation centers.

"It's about wanting to help your community, your city and your country," said blood donor Ferney Cabrera.

The United States announced $15.5 million in emergency aid to Colombia, and the European Union pledged two million euros ($2.3 million).