Hamas, Netanyahu and Trump’s Gaza Gamble: Why Kushner’s Meetings Matter

Jared Kushner has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem just a day after holding rare direct talks with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt, putting Donald Trump’s Gaza strategy through one of its most important tests yet.

The diplomatic shuttle is designed to break a deadlock that increasingly comes down to one dangerous question: does Hamas disarm first, or does Israel withdraw first?

The latest American-backed roadmap attempts to make both things happen as part of the same transition.

Hamas would surrender its military power, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza in stages, a new Palestinian administration would assume civilian authority and an international security structure would help stabilise the territory.

Netanyahu has rejected the current proposal because Israel does not accept withdrawal before Hamas has been fully disarmed.

Erbil Under Pressure After Drones Target Kurdistan Prime Minister

Two explosive-laden drones have targeted the private office of Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in an attack that pushes one of Iraq’s most politically sensitive regions deeper into the Middle East’s widening security crisis.

A second drone targeted the residence of the head of the Kurdistan Region’s security and intelligence apparatus.

No casualties were reported. Yet the absence of deaths should not disguise the significance of the targets.

This was an attack aimed at the political and security leadership of the Kurdistan Region at a time when Erbil is already struggling to avoid being pulled into conflicts surrounding Iran, the United States and their regional allies.

Instagram And YouTube Found Liable Over Addictive Design — What Happens Next Could Be Huge

A California jury has done something the technology industry spent years arguing should not happen: it held the companies behind Instagram and YouTube legally responsible for aspects of how their platforms were designed.

The damages were tiny by Silicon Valley standards. The precedent could be anything but.

Meta and Google were ordered to pay a combined $6 million after jurors concluded that Instagram and YouTube were negligently designed, that inadequate warnings were given about their dangers and that the companies’ conduct was a substantial factor in the harm suffered by a young woman who began using the platforms as a child.

The companies have rejected the conclusions and intend to appeal.

But four months after the March 25 verdict, their attempts to contain its significance have suffered further setbacks. A judge refused requests for a new trial in June. Then, on August 10, a federal appeals court allowed more than 3,000 separate social-media lawsuits to keep moving through the courts.

This is no longer simply a dispute over whether teenagers spend too much time staring at their phones.

It is becoming a battle over whether the architecture of the modern internet itself can create legal liability.

And if that principle survives appeal, Instagram and YouTube may eventually have to change much more than their warning labels.