Israel responded sharply to Labour last night, shutting the UK consulate in East Jerusalem and removing British military personnel from peacebuilding operations.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that British trade sanctions “will not go unanswered”, while also barring a dozen left-wing politicians from entering Israel.

Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Zarah Sultana and John McDonnell are among those banned, alongside all five Green MPs, over what Israel described as “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activities”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet issued a public statement, although Mr Sa’ar said the retaliatory steps had been agreed after consultation with him.

Mr Sa’ar condemned Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s announcement in Parliament as “outrageous lies”, as UK-Israel relations sank to one of their most serious lows.

He said: ‘Unfortunately, a hostile Labour Government is in office, systematically acting against the State of Israel and it has left us with no choice but to finally respond to its hostile actions.’ 

Mr Sa’ar’s countermeasures blocked the British military from working alongside US and Israeli forces in the International Gaza Support Centre which oversees peace operations in the Strip.

The UK’s training of Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank has also been terminated.

While Britain retains its embassy in Tel Aviv, the closure of its East Jerusalem consulate dramatically reduces its diplomatic footprint.

The development underlines the erosion of British influence in Israel – a nation where London once commanded unique soft power and political goodwill forged through decades of historic connections. 

There are also serious concerns that Israel could reduce its intelligence sharing with the UK in response.

Israel’s spy agency Mossad has thwarted countless terror attacks on British soil and the move risks undermining Britain’s relationship with the organisation at a time when the threat level is ‘severe’.

Coming just weeks ahead of Israeli elections, Mr Sa’ar described UK policy as ‘morally distorted’, adding that it ‘constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process’. 

He said: ‘The move by the Labour Government in Britain is particularly absurd given that, more than a century ago, it was the Balfour Declaration of the British Government that formally recognised the historic right of the Jewish people to re-establish their national home in the Land of Israel, including in Judea and Samaria.’ 

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also hit out at the policy, saying it was designed to appeal to Labour’s base while risking emboldening Israel’s extreme Right. 

He said: ‘The British Government’s decision to impose boycotts and sanctions on Israel is a grave mistake. 

‘It is a wrong and dangerous policy, at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons. The decision will strengthen the extremist voices in Israel just before the Knesset elections and provide encouragement to Hamas and the terrorist organisations.’

The UK co-ordinated the sanctions with France and Canada and declared they were a ‘turning point’ despite the Israelis’ fury.

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In a joint statement, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian leader Mark Carney said they wanted to continue their ‘unwavering commitment to Israel’s security’.

But they said it must exist alongside a ‘safe and secure Palestine’. 

The leaders said: ‘A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical for peace, stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.

‘It is a fundamental national interest for the UK, France and Canada to protect and secure this outcome. 

‘Systematic settlement expansion in the West Bank, including the Government of Israel’s latest decision to progress the E1 settlement, as well as the dramatic increase in settler violence, pose a direct and urgent threat to that vision for peace.

‘One year ago, we recognised the State of Palestine. The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late.’

The three leaders also announced they would co-chair a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden have also said they will support trade restrictions.

Blanche D’Alpuget, the acclaimed author and widow of former prime minister Bob Hawke, has died at the age of 82, decades after her relationship with Hawke made her one of the most talked-about women in Australia.

The award-winning writer had asked her family to release a final message to the country after her death.

‘Our highest calling and greatest achievement is love, the rule of life. Love one another,’ the message said.

D’Alpuget is survived by her son, artist and sculptor Louis Pratt, her daughter-in-law Brianna and her granddaughter Sienna. She also remained close to Hawke’s children, Sue Pieters-Hawke, Rosslyn Dillon and Stephen Hawke, along with their families.

‘Blanche wrote and lived entirely on her own terms,’ her family said.

‘She was full of vitality, generosity and curiosity, with an extraordinary appetite for beauty, ideas, history, new places and spirited conversation. 

‘She refused to be confined by convention or by other people’s expectations of who she should be.’ 

D’Alpuget died seven years after Hawke, Australia’s longest-serving Labor prime minister, who she first met in Jakarta in 1970.

The pair, who were nicknamed B1 and B2 as shorthand, reconnected in the 1990s and began a long-running affair after Hawke enlisted her to write his biography.

When Hawke left his first wife Hazel after years of the secret romance, D’Alpuget faced severe public backlash and was labelled the ‘most hated woman in Australia’. 

‘People called her a home-wrecker,’ her son previously recalled about the public after Hawke’s divorce from Hazel. 

The couple married in 1995 and were together until the former Prime Minister’s death in 2019.

D’Alpuget refused to hide from the public eye, despite criticism over her affair with Hawke, and spoke openly about her sex life with Hawke.

‘With mutual, wordless consent it was agreed we would become lovers as soon as possible,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘He was charming, funny and straightforward: he liked me and enjoyed talking to me; what he loved was sex.’ 

She also said she was not under the illusion that she was his only affair and wrote in one instance that she realised Hawke was ‘having affairs with women all over the country’.

D’Alpuget told the Herald that she was under ‘intense judgmentalism’ and said it was ‘really very unfair’. 

‘But I still don’t blog, or Facebook, or Link-In or any of that, because I know I’d be trolled to death,’ she said. 

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‘But I must also say that I don’t worry about what people think – or things in general, very much.’

While speaking to The Sydney Institute in 2018, she said that she thought she would die in a light plane crash in Far North Queensland in 1993 and the incident drove Hawke to take their relationship more seriously.

‘I was in a light plane crash in North Queensland. A friend who was our go-between rang him up and told him,’ she said. 

‘Bob said he felt himself die and that was it. 

‘At that moment, he decided. He suddenly took the relationship extraordinarily seriously and made it clear to me. But it was timing. It was an angel, holy angels.’ 

D’Alpuget grew up as an only child in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and first worked as a journalist before travelling the world.

A rebellious teenager, she ran away at 17 years old with a married Polish immigrant and previously described their whirlwind romance in detail.

‘In one three-day stretch, we made love 21 times, stopping only to bathe and eat rye bread, csabai and cucumbers,’ she said

She returned to Australia at the age of 30 to begin working as a novelist.

The author also spoke candidly about how she was preparing for death in her final media interview earlier this year.

‘I think if you’re at a certain age, and you don’t start informing yourself, you’re foolish,’ she told News Corp.

‘Just as we prepare ourselves for life, by learning a language, reading, writing, and arithmetic, I think we should prepare ourselves for death. 

‘But I do believe in the afterlife. Our soul lives on. I don’t know in what form, but this life in the body is not the end of your life. Maybe we are reborn. I don’t know, but it could be a huge, exciting adventure.’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the first to pay tribute, hailing D’Alpuget as a one-off. 

‘As a writer, she was at home in fiction as she was in non-fiction, working in each realm with a keen eye for every telling detail that opened up the humanity of her subject to her readers,’ he said.

Blanche’s novels were compelling works of verve and originality, and her biographies comprehensive and definitive – most famously those she wrote of Bob Hawke, who became her great love and ultimately her husband.

Derek Rielly, who wrote the Hawke biography Wednesdays With Bob, shared a heartfelt tribute with the Daily Mail.

‘Blanche believed that the pain of death is temporary, that it’s a fiery door and it will burn you but it’s a transient pain that will vanish,’ he said.

‘She lived a beautiful, complete and electric life and to her very last breath radiated a love for all humanity.

‘As she told me, ‘The more humans there are, the more love there is. Love is what distinguishes humans from the rest of creation’.’

An Illinois dog owner is grieving what he described as an unimaginable loss after his cherished pet was allegedly left inside a daycare van for the entire day.

Steve Serota told the Daily Mail that Miller, his six-year-old black Labrador, was taken to Waggles Pet Resort on the morning of September 2.

The father of three said Miller was picked up at about 9am, just as he normally was, but roughly seven hours later, his wife received a devastating call from the doggy day care.

At around 4pm, Serota said Ross Miehaus, the owner of the pet resort, told the family that Miller had been left in the van all day and had died.

‘I’m dumbstruck,’ the heartbroken father said. ‘How is this possible?’

Serota said temperatures reached 97 degrees outside, making it one of the hottest days his neighborhood had seen all year.

He rushed to the facility, where he said Miller’s body was still locked in a crate inside the van.

After seeing what he considered a member of his family lying dead, the father took a moment to sit with Miller in the back of the vehicle.

Serota said he was given no explanation as to how his dog was left to die in the scorching heat and was dumbfounded by how employees could have missed him.

‘I mean, as you can imagine, it’s just heart-wrenching. But the most unbelievable part is that he was in the first crate,’ Serota said.

‘You open the van door and you’re staring right at him. This is a 110-pound black Lab. You see him the moment you open the door.’

The Daily Mail reached out to Waggles for comment on Miller’s death. In a statement, the company said it was devastated by the tragedy.

‘We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Miller, a dog who died after being left in one of our chauffeur service vehicles,’ the statement read.

‘This should never have happened, and our hearts are with Miller’s family as they grieve the loss of their beloved companion.’

Ross Miehaus, the owner of the pet day care, was arrested Thursday after turning himself in to police on a charge of cruel treatment of animals, according to ABC 7.

The company said it was ‘taking what happened extremely seriously.’

‘At this time, we are temporarily pausing our chauffeur service while we evaluate steps to help prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again,’ the statement read.

The pet resort has remained open for business, leaving Serota bewildered.

‘I’ve been in healthcare for a long time, and when something happens or something goes wrong, you do an immediate RCA, root cause analysis,’ the father said.

‘You look at where the failures occurred, and you make sure that you put absolute safeguards in place before you ever take responsibility for another life. And to my knowledge, none of that happened.’

Waggles said it is limited in what it can publicly discuss because of the pending legal matter.

‘We understand the sadness, anger and concern this tragedy has caused within our community. We share that heartbreak. Miller was loved, he mattered, and his loss has affected all of us deeply,’ the company said.

‘Because there is now a pending legal matter, we are limited in what we can say publicly about the specific circumstances surrounding Miller’s death. But that limitation does not diminish our sorrow, our sympathy for Miller’s family, or our commitment to learn from this tragedy going forward.’

Serota said Miller was like a brother to his three children and a big dog with an even bigger personality.

The father said the unexpected nature of his dog’s death has been the hardest part for his family to cope with.

‘When you have a dog, and we had a dog before Miller named Duffy, when a dog lives a full, happy life and they die, there is a life-cycle conversation you can have with your kids,’ Serota said.

‘But this wasn’t that, right? This was completely unexpected. This was completely unnecessary. It’s just tragic.’

Serota said he wants to speak publicly about what happened to Miller in hopes of preventing a similar tragedy from happening to someone else’s pet.

‘We can’t let this moment pass without enacting some real change to ensure that other dogs don’t suffer the same fate,’ he said.

Aldi shoppers are rushing to try a low-cost fridge find after enthusiastic reviews began circulating across social media.

The supermarket’s Beef Philly Cheesesteak Rolls with Fries and Dipping Sauce are priced at $14.99 for a two-person serve and form part of Aldi’s ready-to-cook meal kit line-up.

Adding to the appeal, the American diner-style dinner can be cooked in a frypan in about 20 minutes, with Australian shoppers who have already tried it saying the meal delivers on the buzz.

‘These were awesome, we bought the cool little diner baskets as well,’ one customer wrote, sharing a photo of the plated-up cheesesteak rolls and fries.

The 41-year-old runner, who enjoyed the cheesesteaks for Father’s Day, called the Aldi buy an ideal ‘every now and then’ treat.

Others were impressed by the generous portion sizes – and the fact the finished product actually bears a striking resemblance to the glossy photo on the box.

While most agreed it was far from an everyday option for the health-conscious, shoppers agreed it delivered exactly what was promised: a rich, cheesy and satisfying feed.

‘They’re good if you are really into that style food. Very rich, cheesy, tasty American style,’ one foodie wrote.

‘Very salty, loads of meat for each bun, good BBQ sauce and the meat is pre-seasoned with a good amount of pepper.’

‘Can confirm made it tonight. It was bloody good,’ another added.

‘Wow it actually looks like the advertisement photo,’ one more said.

Another fan revealed they’d skipped the frypan altogether.

‘Had these last night. They’re easy to make using airfryer… wife and I loved them,’ they said.

And it’s not the only Aldi bargain winning over Australian shoppers this month.

One of the supermarket’s $9.99 in-house wines was recently named among the best in Australia after picking up yet another major industry accolade.

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The Freya and Jules Riesling was awarded Gold and an impressive score of 95/100 in the White Wine Riesling category.

It’s the latest in a growing haul of honours for the bargain bottle, which also claimed Elite Gold at the 2025 Canberra International Riesling Challenge and Gold medals at both the 2025 Royal Queensland Wine Show and 2025 Melbourne International Wine Competition.

Sourced from South Australia’s renowned Clare Valley, the exceptionally good-value drop opens with aromas of white florals and orange blossom, complemented by fresh lime and a hint of orange rind.

It’s described as a ‘well balanced wine that finishes crisp and refreshing’ – showcasing the quality and value that has made the bottle a standout in its category.

‘This award is a fantastic endorsement of the quality our wine team continues to deliver at Aldi prices,’ an Aldi spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

And bargain-hunting wine lovers now have another reason to keep a close eye on the supermarket aisles, with Aldi launching its new ‘Secret Cellar’ program.

Combining ‘premium quality, remarkable value and a little mystery’, the initiative will see one ultra-premium wine land in stores at a dramatically reduced price every couple of months.

There’s just one catch: shoppers won’t know which bottle is coming until it hits stores.

Instead, customers will need to keep an eye on upcoming release dates in the Aldi catalogue before heading in to discover the mystery drop.

The first release has already landed.

Pirramimma Trademark Limited Edition Shiraz from McLaren Vale, normally valued at $70, is available for just $14.99.

That’s a whopping 79 per cent saving on the premium bottle.

The next Secret Cellar drops are scheduled for October and December, with each release strictly limited and available only while stocks last.

Philly cheesesteak, fries and a good bottle of wine for less than $30? Dinner sorted.