Archives for July 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with US President Donald Trump

Washington: President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks at the White House next Monday, according to two US administration officials.

The visit comes as the US leader has begun stepping up his push on the Israeli government and Hamas to broker a ceasefire and hostage agreement and bring about an end to the war in Gaza.

The officials were not authorised to comment publicly on the visit that hasn’t been formally announced and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Netanyahu’s visit comes after Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer’s visit to Washington this week for talks with senior administration officials on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and other matters.

The president in public comments has signalled he’s turning his attention to bringing a close to the fighting between Israel and Hamas, since the ceasefire to end 12 days of fighting between Israel and Iran took hold a week ago.

Trump on Friday told reporters, “We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire” in Gaza, but didn’t offer any further explanation for his optimism.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Monday said Trump and administration officials were in constant communication with Israeli leadership and bringing about an end to the Gaza conflict is a priority for Trump.It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end. He wants to save lives,” Leavitt added.

An eight-week ceasefire was reached as Trump took office earlier this year, but Israel resumed the war in March after trying to get Hamas to accept new terms on next steps.

Talks between Israel and Hamas have repeatedly faltered over a major sticking point — whether the war should end as part of any ceasefire agreement. About 50 hostages remain captive in Gaza, with less than half believed to be alive.

The timing of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington was first reported by Axios.

Trump will embrace Netanyahu as he pushes back against skeptical questions from Democratic lawmakers and others about how far US and Israeli strikes have set back Iran’s nuclear programme.

A preliminary report issued by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said the strikes did significant damage to the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan sites, but did not totally destroy the facilities.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday that the three Iranian sites with “capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree”.

But, he added some is still standing and that because capabilities remain, “if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.

He said assessing the full damage comes down to Iran allowing inspectors access.

Trump in recent days has also inserted himself into Israeli domestic affairs, calling for charges against Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial to be thrown out.

Trump’s in a social media post last week condemned the trial as a “WITCH HUNT”, and vowed that the United States will be the one who “saves” Netanyahu from serious corruption charges.

The decision by Trump to plunge himself into one of Israel’s most heated debates has unnerved some in its political class.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Monday approved a new half-billion-dollar arms sale to Israel to resupply its military with bomb guidance kits for precision munitions.

The State Department said the sale is worth USD 510 million. It includes more than 7,000 guidance kits for two different types of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAMs.

The deal is relatively small given that the U.S. provides Israel with more than USD 3 billion annually in military aid. But Israel has relied on JDAMs and other related US weaponry in its war against Hamas in Gaza and its recent strikes against Iran.

“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the department said in a statement.

“This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.”

US President Donald Trump

Washington (AP): The Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged on Tuesday, saying he and 19 other states’ attorneys general have sued over the move.

Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s advisers ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, DC, to the Department of Homeland Security, The Associated Press first reported last month.

All of those states allow non-US citizens to enrol in Medicaid programmes that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.

The unusual data sharing of private health information, including addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status, and claims data for enrollees in those states, was released to deportation officials as they accelerated enforcement efforts across the country. The data could be used to help the Department of Homeland Security locate migrants in its mass deportation campaign, experts said.

Bonta said the Trump administration’s data release violates federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

“This is about flouting seven decades of federal law policy and practice that have made it clear that personal healthcare data is confidential and can only be shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit the public’s health or the Medicaid program,” Bonta said during a news conference on Tuesday.

The Trump administration has sought to arm deportation officials with more data on immigrants. In May, for example, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal status in the U.S.

The move to shore up the federal government’s data on immigrant Medicaid enrollees appears to have been set in motion in May, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would be reviewing some states rolls to ensure federal funds have not been used to pay for coverage for people with “unsatisfactory immigration status.”

As part of the review, CMS asked California, Washington and Illinois to share details about non-US citizens who have enrolled in their state’s Medicaid program, according to a June 6 memo signed by Medicaid Deputy Director Sara Vitolo that was obtained by the AP. The memo was written by several CMS officials under Vitolo’s supervision, according to sources familiar with the process.

CMS officials attempted to fight the data sharing request from Homeland Security, saying that to do so would violate federal laws, including the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974, according to the memo.

The legal arguments outlined in the memo were not persuasive to Trump appointees at HHS, which oversees the Medicaid agency.

Four days after the memo was sent, on June 10, HHS officials directed the transfer of “the data to DHS by 5:30 ET today,” according to email exchanges obtained by AP.

HHS is “aggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds,” agency spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. The agency has not provided details on DHS’ role in the effort. Nixon also defended the legality of releasing the data to DHS.

“HHS acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,” he said in the statement.

Dozens of Democratic members of Congress — in both the House and Senate — have sent letters to the involved agencies, demanding that data sharing cease and that Homeland Security destroy the information it has received so far.