Israel prime minister Netanyahu has resorted to increasingly alarmist rhetoric and reportedly put pressure on Israel’s military to take action against Iran as his far-right coalition narrowly trails in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s close-run elections.

He posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud destroying Tel Aviv, telling Israeli voters to choose him or risk nuclear annihilation. Israel’s Channel 12 news also reported that the prime minister and the armed forces chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, clashed in recent days over a directive to the military which could “potentially spark an immediate conflagration with Iran at a very sensitive juncture”, by provoking a miscalculation by Iran.

Netanyahu denied the report, and the defence ministry later denied any intention to carry out military operations against Iran. On Monday however, CNN reported that Netanyahu had tried to convince Donald Trump to launch a renewed assault on Iran in recent weeks, renewing the war both men started in February.

Gadi Eisenkot, the leader of the opposition bloc and Netanyahu’s most likely challenger for the prime minister’s job, expressed his confidence in Zamir, stating that they won’t allow the IDF to be turned into a pawn in Netanyahu’s survival campaign. Most polls suggest the mainly centre-right opposition bloc led by Eisenkot is poised to win more seats in Israel’s Knesset than the Netanyahu coalition, but neither would be able to muster the 61 seats necessary for a majority government. The prime minister is also in the midst of a trial on corruption charges, and his legal jeopardy could increase if he loses his grip on power.

China accused the United States on Monday of “targeted smearing” over Washington’s designation of Beijing-funded Confucius Institute cultural centres as national security threats.

Washington considers the centres on American university campuses as propaganda tools of the Chinese Communist Party and has imposed funding restrictions on the institutes since 2025. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth further said on Friday that his department had dismantled dozens of similar organisations over two months that had reappeared in disguise, “using different names… but with the same mission” and deemed them a threat to national security.

China’s foreign ministry criticised the move on Monday, describing that the USA is conducting a targeted smearing and stigmatisation of Confucius Institutes. He insisted that China-US educational exchanges and cooperation are beneficial to enhancing mutual understanding between the people of both countries, and such ties “should not be interfered with or undermined”.

China has set up hundreds of Confucius Institutes in more than 150 countries over the last two decades, according to the body that oversees them. While Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called them a “symbol of China’s unremitting efforts for world peace and international cooperation”, the cultural centres have faced increasing resistance around the world, having been closed down in several countries following similar accusations of foreign interference including in France, Sweden, Australia and Canada.

Owners of the new foldable iPhone are reporting cracks in the device’s screen, as Apple confirmed an issue with a “small number” of units.

Reports of cracks have emerged on Reddit and social media platforms since the handset went on general sale globally on Friday. Experts said there had been too few examples to determine whether there was a more serious problem with Apple’s first foldable device, which retails from $1,999.

One user in Australia even reported that their Duo had cracked within six hours of taking ownership of it and posted their experience on Reddit, describing how they were showing it to a friend, but something around the internal hinge underneath the screen cracked and soon the screen also broke. Another user in Australia posted that they had heard “almost a cracking noise” on their handset, which resulted in a similar screen malfunction.

Apple confirmed some devices had been affected by a display glitch, and advised users to contact AppleCare for replacements. A report by the Bloomberg news service also highlighted similar issues among users in the US and India.