| Good morning and welcome to White House Watch. Let’s dive into: Israel and Lebanon agree to implement a US-brokered ceasefire The former Downing Street adviser leading California’s gubernatorial primary election An AI guide for the perplexed
Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire following US-brokered talks in Washington seeking to end fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hizbollah militant group. The cessation of hostilities is contingent on Hizbollah withdrawing its fighters from southern Lebanon and halting its attacks on Israel, the state department said in a statement on Wednesday night. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments,” it said. “Israel and Lebanon reaffirmed that they have no hostile intent toward one another and committed to continuing direct negotiations.” The two countries have agreed to the creation of “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese Armed Forces will take control of the territory “to the exclusion of all non-state actors”. Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon in March after Hizbollah launched rockets into Israel following its attack on Iran alongside the US. Lebanese and Israeli envoys held their first direct talks in decades in Washington in April, later agreeing to a 14-day ceasefire. Hizbollah and Israel continued to trade fire on a daily basis during the truce. 
Officials from Israel, Lebanon and the US at a meeting in Washington on Wednesday © Oliver Contreras/AFP/Getty Images US officials have sought to disentangle the Lebanon talks from negotiations seeking to end the US-Israeli war with Iran. But Tehran, Hizbollah’s principal benefactor, has sought to link the two conflicts. On Monday, Iran said that it had suspended back-channel talks with the US in response to Israel’s expanding bombing campaign in Lebanon. Hizbollah, which has long been designated a terror group by the US, has not been present at the talks. Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hizbollah had agreed to limit their fighting in Lebanon after having spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and communicating with the Iran-backed militant group. He wrote on social media that Netanyahu had agreed that Israeli forces “going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back”. The president added that Hizbollah had agreed not to continue its attacks on Israel. Republican Steve Hilton, a one-time adviser to the UK’s former prime minister David Cameron, is leading a primary battle to become one of the final two candidates for governor of California.
The potential victory comes five years after Hilton became a US citizen and renounced his British citizenship last year. He entered the race for governor of California — the world’s fourth-largest economy — as a Republican last year, later securing Trump’s endorsement. It would cap a stunning political reinvention for Cameron’s former strategy director, who was known for padding around Downing Street in bare feet. In California’s “jungle” primary system, the two most popular candidates will be on the ballot in the race for the governor’s mansion in November, regardless of their party affiliation.
According to the Associated Press, Hilton had secured 27.8 per cent of the vote by early morning on Wednesday local time, compared with 25.4 per cent for Democrat Xavier Becerra. Billionaire Tom Steyer, also running as a Democrat, was third with 19.6 per cent. Republicans have not won a statewide race in California since 2006, and Kamala Harris defeated Trump in the Golden State by roughly 20 points in 2024. Clarification: In Tuesday’s edition, we wrote that Gavin Newsom had opted not to return as California’s governor. The state limits governors to two terms and he is unable to run for governor for a third time. | 
