The United States and Israel on Friday accused Iran of trying to kill Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, with Tehran rejecting the claim as a “big lie” and the Mexican government saying it was unaware of the plot.The purported assassination attempt came as tensions soared to new highs between Israel and Iran, which have each attacked the other’s territory.Israel said Mexican authorities had intervened to stop the attempt to kill its ambassador, Einat Kranz-Neiger, but Mexico’s foreign ministry later said it had “received no information” on the alleged incident.Without naming the United States or Israel, Mexico’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, which oversees intelligence, said it was open to “respectful and coordinated cooperation, always within the framework of national sovereignty, with all security agencies that request it.”Kranz-Neiger, when asked by Mexican media about the conflicting statements, said she was “unaware of the reasons” of Mexico’s denial.”Those who acted to neutralize this threat were the Mexican security and intelligence authorities,” she told Radio Formula.Iran’s embassy in Mexico meanwhile called the alleged plot “a great big lie.”The objective “is to damage the friendly and historic relations between both countries (Mexico and Iran), which we categorically reject,” the embassy in Mexico posted on X.Mexico historically seeks non-intervention in international affairs and has taken a more cautious stance on the Gaza war than other leftist-led Latin American countries.Mexico has backed an investigation into allegations of Israeli war crimes but has also maintained diplomatic relations with Israel, which were established decades ago and have been largely cordial.- Alleged Venezuela connection -A US official said the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force initiated the plot in late 2024 and that it was disrupted this year.The plot allegedly included recruiting operatives out of Iran’s embassy in Venezuela, whose leftist president, Nicolas Maduro, has a tactical alliance with Tehran.”This is just the latest in a long history of Iran’s global lethal targeting of diplomats, journalists, dissidents and anyone who disagrees with them, something that should deeply worry every country where there is an Iranian presence,” the US official said on condition of anonymity.The official did not provide detailed evidence or say how the plot was contained.The alleged plot would have taken place after Israel’s April 1, 2024 attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus, then a close ally of Tehran. The attack killed several top Revolutionary Guards officers and prompted vows of revenge by Tehran, which fired missiles and drones against Israel.A year later Israel carried out a much more extensive bombing campaign in Iran, which killed more than 1,000 people. The United States, Israel’s main ally, joined by bombing key sites of Iran’s contested nuclear program.Iran’s cleric-run state has been a critical supporter of Hamas, the armed Palestinian militant group in Gaza that carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.Israel responded with a relentless campaign that has left most of Gaza in rubble and expanded its military offensive across the region, hitting Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Yemen.Israeli intelligence has accused the Quds Force of plotting against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas.Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador over what it said was Iranian involvement in two arson attacks — against a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.Latin America is not a stranger to violence linked to the Middle East. A bombing at a Jewish center in 1994 in Buenos Aires killed 85 people, with Argentina and Israel saying it was carried out by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at the request of Iran.Iran remains home to a historic Jewish community despite the hostility to Israel by the cleric-run government that took power with the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In a week when the US Democratic Party finally showed some signs of life after a year of flatlining, one man proved he was already the picture of political health: Gavin Newsom.The telegenic governor of California took another big step towards cementing his place as de facto leader of America’s opposition — and the presumed frontrunner in the race to be the party’s White House nominee in 2028.California voted by a thumping majority to redraw congressional districts in Democrats’ favor, approving Newsom’s plan to counter similar gerrymandering that President Donald Trump ordered in Texas.The move aimed to level the playing field for the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to wrestle control of the House of Representatives from a Republican majority they say has done nothing to check a burgeoning White House powergrab.Newsom wasted no time urging other Democratic-led states to follow suit.”We need to see other states, their remarkable leaders that have been doing remarkable things, meet this moment head on as well,” he said moments after polls closed Tuesday, as the two-to-one margin of victory became clear. “We can de facto end Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it” should Democrats reclaim the House next year, Newsom added. “It is all on the line.”While there were big Democratic wins in New York’s mayoral contest and governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, Newsom’s gambit — and its potential national ramifications — was balm to a party that has floundered since being trounced in last year’s election.Getting the California redistricting vote off the ground in just a few months, then winning so handily — albeit in a Democratic-leaning state — left some party members impressed.”It shows that he can get stuff done,” Christale Spain, chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, told The New York Times.”Democrats want somebody to fight back. He’s pushing back and fighting back.”- ‘Light years ahead’ – Newsom, 58, is no party shoo-in for 2028, in part because he hails from a state Republicans love to knock as a bastion of progressive “wokeness.”And several Democratic luminaries are believed to be in the presidential mix, including multiple fellow governors: Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker of Illinois, who like Newsom has punched back fiercely against Trump’s immigration crackdowns.But few politicians have undergone the kind of evolution that Newsom experienced in 2025.Days after Trump was sworn into office in January, the governor welcomed him to California, where devastating wildfires had torched swathes of Los Angeles, killing dozens of people and leaving thousands more homeless.While the two men’s enmity was never completely hidden, Newsom at least appeared to try a bipartisan hug that would keep the mercurial president involved in the costly recovery.At the same time, Newsom was inviting MAGA movement figures like Steve Bannon onto his personal podcast, hoping to reach the hard-right voters that almost instinctively detest him.But when Trump refused to engage and returned to bashing California, the governor switched methods and started hitting back.His social media accounts began mimicking the president’s all-caps hyperbole, mocking Trump’s boastfulness and his peculiar writing style.The turn delighted Democrats — and got attention nationwide.Then when immigration raids in Los Angeles sparked demonstrations that Trump met with a military deployment, Newsom doubled down.”What we’re witnessing is not law enforcement — it’s authoritarianism,” he said in June. “What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.”Newsom now routinely warns that Trump is a danger to Americans — while continuing to mock the thin-skinned president; a governor’s release Friday on the defunding of food assistance showed Trump’s face superimposed on a portrait of Marie Antoinette.Newsom is betting that kind of in-your-face pushback is just what Democrats want.Strategist Matt Rodriguez told Cal Matters the governor was “light years ahead of everyone else” in the race for the 2028 Democratic Party nomination.”He’s the only one driving his own news,” he said. “Everyone else is like a moth to flame.”