Foreign Ministry’s public diplomacy staff meets West Bank settlement leader in show of support

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.

The public diplomacy staff of the Foreign Ministry visits the West Bank and meets with Yisrael Ganz, chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group for Israeli settlements, in a sign of the government’s support for the settlement enterprise.

Yacov Livne, the ministry’s senior deputy director general for public diplomacy, posts a photo of the visit to social media. It is unclear where the group visited.

“Judea and Samaria are at the heart of the Land of Israel,” Livne posts, using the territory’s biblical name and calling the visit and the meeting with Ganz “a valuable opportunity to see the region up close and share its story with the world.”

Most of the international community considers the settlements a violation of international law, a characterization Israel rejects. The government in recent years has taken a series of steps to expand the settlements, with the goal of blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The alleged leader of an Irish organized crime gang is extradited to Ireland from Dubai on Sunday to face allegations that he ran an international drug smuggling and money laundering empire with tentacles that stretched to Britain, Spain and the US.

The Irish Air Corps plane carrying Daniel Kinahan, 49, lands at an airport on the outskirts of Dublin after courts in Dubai refuse to block his extradition.

Kinahan is taken to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin where he is charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. He is ordered to remain in custody at the high-security Portlaoise Prison about 90 miles southwest of the capital. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 5.

Ireland’s Special Criminal Court handles all organized crime and terrorism cases, as well as others where prosecutors believe the ordinary courts are inadequate to ensure the “effective administration of justice.” Cases are heard by a panel of three judges without a jury.

Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, will become White House counsel and assistant to the president effective September 1, US President Donald Trump says.

Scharf will become the White House’s top lawyer after overseeing the administrative work of the Oval Office in his current role.

He also led the National Capital Planning Commission, which approved the president’s controversial construction of the White House ballroom.

Scharf was raised Modern Orthodox in New York City and Florida, according to a 2023 profile in Jewish Insider, and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, an elite non-Jewish private prep school in Massachusetts. He told Jewish Insider that he lays tefillin every day and attends Shabbat services at Chabad.

Trump says David Warrington, the current White House counsel, is going to the private sector. Warrington formerly served as a personal counsel and a lawyer for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have resumed attacks on the Red Sea port city of Mocha, a Yemeni military spokesperson says.

Footage shown by Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV shows the launch of several ballistic missiles and drones, which Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree says in a post on Telegram targeted Saudi troop concentrations and weapons depots.

The Yemeni military says on X that air defenses are intercepting a number of drones, adding Houthi attacks targeted residential neighborhoods in Mocha.

The Central District Court has accepted and will hear a class action lawsuit against major ice cream chain Golda, that is seeking hundreds of millions in compensation from the company for allegedly misleading customers regarding sugar-free flavors.

The lawsuit alleges that for several years, the company sold two flavors — coffee and hazelnut — that were labeled as sugar-free, when in fact they had 13 times the amount of sugar allowed for such labeling under regulations (6.6 grams per 100g compared to a limit of 0.5g per 100g).

Golda claimed in its defense that the reasonable customer would understand that “no sugar” meant “no added sugar.” Judge Iris Rabinovitch-Brun rejected this assertion.

“The claim that the products were consumed as a result of the alleged misrepresentation is one that warrants examination as part of the lawsuit,” she writes. “There is grounds to assume that the ice cream was purchased and consumed under the impression that it was sugar-free. There is reason to believe that the sugar content of the product is a material consideration for a consumer purchasing ice cream labeled ‘sugar-free’ at an ice cream shop where the vast majority of the ice creams are not sugar-free.”

The lawyers leading the lawsuit assess the damages, if proven at court, could come to some NIS 350 million ($117 million).

Attorney Ori Eldar tells Channel 12: “The decision [to hear the case] sends a clear message to the food industry: anyone who labels a product ‘sugar-free’ must stand behind those words and their plain meaning. Consumers seeking to avoid sugar, including people with diabetes and those following specific diets, are entitled to rely on the sign in front of them.”

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