The Guardian reports that alleged child abuser Malka Leifer will not be allowed to “evade justice”, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has promised Australia’s Prime Minister, a day after a Jerusalem court ruled the former headteacher was mentally fit to stand trial and be extradited.

The Times reports that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is expected to learn today whether she will be included in a sweeping pardon by the Iranian supreme leader for Eid al-Fitr. Sky News reports that Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband says her release “feels quite close” as he waits to find out if she is among 3,000 prisoners granted clemency.

Reuters reports that the US said on Wednesday it will terminate sanctions waivers that had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to carry out work originally designed to make it harder for Iranian nuclear sites to be used for weapons development.

The Associated Press reports that Iran’s parliament voted Thursday to elect a hard-line former mayor of Tehran as the legislative body’s new speaker, as Iranian state television said Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf had been elected during a parliamentary session.

The Guardian, BBC News, Sky News and Reuters report that Iran’s president has called for swift action to outlaw so-called “honour killings” after the death of a 14-year-old Iranian girl allegedly at the hands of her father prompted a nationwide outcry.

Sky News reports that the US has accused two Russian fighter jets of “unsafely” intercepting one of its patrol planes over the Mediterranean Sea, as two Russian SU-35 jets flew alongside the P-8A Poseidon for one hour and four minutes on Tuesday, the US defence department said.

The Guardian reports that a security flaw in Qatar’s coronavirus contact-tracing app put the sensitive personal details of more than a million people at risk, according to an investigation by Amnesty International.

In the Financial Times, David Gardner writes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees a chance to advance annexation plans, as the Israeli premier now has every motive to distract public opinion and move ahead with this pledge.

In The Independent, Maya Oppenheim demonstrates that domestic abuse is increasing in Jordan with refugees most at risk, as Covid-driven pressures and stresses of daily life are leading to higher levels of gender-based violence.

For BBC News, Martin Patience shows how Lebanon’s economic woes are worsening as the country’s economy is pushed to the brink.

Maariv reports on the explanations given by the Supreme Court for why it ruled not to disqualify Benjamin Netanyahu from forming the government despite the criminal indictments against him. The report quotes Justice Anat Baron, who said: “It cannot be denied that having someone charged with serious offenses form a government does not comply with the fundamental principles of Israeli democracy — particularly the obligation to governmental loyalty, integrity in power and the public’s trust. That said, judicial intervention in the request by a majority of MKs to task a specific MK with forming the government would be a moral blow to the principle of the sovereignty of the majority, which goes to the heart of democracy. Undermining this principle would place democracy itself in jeopardy.” The report also quotes the Justices saying that they would issue an injunction to cancel the Norwegian law if it were not dropped from the Knesset’s agenda since “it attempts to retroactively and ad hominem change the results of the elections substantially undermining the right to vote and to be elected”. Yesterday the Knesset passed the Norwegian law in a preliminary reading and by a majority of 66 versus 42 opposed.

Kan Radio News reports that the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Israel continues to fall. There are 1,940 confirmed cases, a drop of 77 in 24 hours, of which 38 are on ventilators. The number of people in Israel who have died of the coronavirus is 281. Yesterday, the coronavirus cabinet approved to allocate grants worth up to half a billion shekels to employers who did not put their workers on unpaid leave. The decision was made in wake of public criticism of the Finance Ministry’s plan.

Maariv reports on comments from Israel’s National Cyber Directorate Director General Yigal Unna about the recent Iranian cyberattack on Israel’s water infrastructure in late April. “We will perhaps remember the next few months and the year 2020 as the point of historic change in modern cyberwarfare. We in Israel had to cope with an organised, synchronised attempted attack against our water systems. We were able to prevent damage, but if the ‘bad guys’ had succeeded in their plot, there could have been a water shortage for the civilian population. Had the chlorine dosages and those of other chemicals been altered in the drinking water, there could have a true disaster,” Unna said. He further warned that the Iranian cyberattack “was just the first sign of a new era of attacks on humanitarian targets,” and predicted that the Iranians continue to improve the cyber capabilities because “the level of attacks will be very high … sophisticated and very dangerous.”