The U.S.-Israeli relationship hit a rare rocky patch under President Trump on Monday when the U.S. flatly denied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assertion that he had been discussing annexing part of the West Bank with the Trump administration "for some time now." The White House apparently privately demanded and publicly received a walking-back of that claim, which Netanyahu aides said the prime minister made in a meeting with a faction of his Likud party. "The United States and Israel have never discussed such a proposal, and the president's focus remains squarely on his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative," White House spokesman Josh Raffel said.

Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, spearheaded by son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Jason Greenblatt, is stalled after Trump announced U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, prompting the Palestinian Authority to disengage. Now, Trump appears to have added a new Mideast peace envoy: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Moscow on Monday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated to Putin that "from now on we refuse to cooperate in any form with the U.S. in its status of a mediator, as we stand against its actions." Putin told Abbas that he had "just spoken over the phone" with Trump, and "naturally, we spoke about the Palestinian-Israeli settlement," according to Russia's official TASS news agency. "I would like to convey to you his best wishes," Putin told Abbas. Abbas said the Palestinians would be willing to participate in an international peace conference in which the U.S. was just one player, along with Russia, the European Union, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Arab states. Peter Weber

Friday marked six years since 28 people, mostly children, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. On the same day, another threat to the school forced its evacuation.

At around 9 a.m. Friday, police say the Newtown, Connecticut school received a bomb threat and evacuated everyone inside, local ABC affiliate WCVB reports. Police later said the threat was likely not credible, but school was still canceled for the rest of the day, per local station Fox 61.

A wave of bomb threats were emailed to businesses, schools, and government buildings across the U.S. on Thursday, but were determined to be a hoax. Sandy Hook's threat didn't seem to be connected to these widespread threats, police told Fox 61. The building where the Sandy Hook shooting happened in 2012 was previously demolished and a new school was rebuilt. Police began sweeping the existing school after everyone was evacuated.

Local gun control group Newtown Action tweeted the news and asked readers to "please stand with our community as we attempt to survive another tragic anniversary." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) quickly responded with the tweet below. Kathryn Krawczyk

Conservative magazine The Weekly Standard is shutting down after 23 years in print, its owners announced Friday.

The Weekly Standard, once published by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, rose to prominence as it influenced former President George W. Bush's administration. It was sold to Clarity Media Group in 2008, and soon proved a persistent critic to President Trump and the rise of the far right.

That neoconservative voice may have been its downfall, though, CNN points out. The Weekly Standard's finances faltered as far-right publications such as The Daily Caller and Breitbart grew. It reportedly searched for a new owner earlier this year, but The Daily Caller later reported the magazine wouldn't last until 2019, per The Ringer.

The Weekly Standard editor Steve Hayes broke the news to staffers in an email on Friday. Read all of it below. Kathryn Krawczyk

Facebook has just disclosed yet another leak, this time affecting millions of users' private photos.

The social media platform said Friday that it discovered a bug that may have given up to 1,500 third-party apps improper access to photos from up to 6.8 million users. Normally, the apps would only be permitted to access photos that a user has actually posted on their Facebook timeline, but because of this bug, the apps could access pictures that weren't publicly posted. This would include pictures shared on Facebook's Marketplace or on Facebook Stories, as well as pictures that a user uploaded but didn't end up posting.

The apps had access to these photos for 12 days in September 2018, Facebook says. This issue would have only affected users who authorized the app to access photos. "We're sorry this happened," Facebook said. You can find out whether any of your pictures were affected by the bug here.

This is just the latest security scandal for Facebook, which is still reeling from revelations earlier this year that a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, was able to gain access to Facebook users' private information. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress the scandal was "my mistake, and I'm sorry." Brendan Morrow

As expected, late Sen. John McCain's replacement is stepping down at the end of this year.

Following the longtime senator's death in August, fellow Arizona Republican Jon Kyl was appointed to take his spot. Kyl served three Senate terms alongside McCain before retiring in 2013, and only promised to serve until the end of the year. He officially submitted his resignation letter Friday, leaving Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to appoint another senator before a 2020 special election.

Arizona's U.S. senators have had a tumultuous year, with Sen. Jeff Flake (R) opting not to run for re-election this year and making a few last-minute bipartisan stands along the way. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) narrowly beat Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) to win Flake's seat in November.

Still, McSally remains popular among other Republican senators, suggesting Ducey might appoint McSally to fill Kyl's shoes next year, CNN notes. Ducey's Chief of Staff Kirk Adams has also emerged as a potential appointee, as has state treasurer Eileen Klein, AZ Central says. Regardless, whoever Ducey appoints will only get to serve until 2020 before having to defend their seat in a special election. Kathryn Krawczyk

"Truth isn't truth," and presidential inaugurations have nothing to do with presidents, apparently.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Thursday night that The Wall Street Journal's report about a criminal investigation into President Trump's 2017 inaugural committee is only distantly, vaguely related to Trump himself.

"That doesn't have anything to do with the president or the first lady," said Sanders. "The biggest thing the president did in his engagement in the inauguration was to come here, and raise his hand, and take the oath of office."

Federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into whether Trump's inaugural committee misspent any of its record $107 million haul and whether any of the committee's biggest donors sought access to or special favors from the incoming Trump administration for their donations. Improper spending could amount to a violation of federal corruption laws.

Even though the committee told the Journal that there is no such investigation, Sanders quickly distanced Trump from the entire situation. "The president was focused on the transition during that time and not on any of the planning," she said. Watch her comments below, via Vox's Aaron Rupar. Summer Meza

Among allies of President Trump, "he did not break the law" has quickly evolved into "even if he did, who cares?"

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told The Daily Beast in a story published Friday that the ongoing controversy over possible campaign finance violations isn't a big deal because "Nobody got killed, nobody got robbed," adding, "this was not a big crime." He went on to compare paying hush money to two alleged mistresses shortly before a presidential election to not paying parking tickets.

Trump's lawyer had previously argued that the payments were not related to the campaign and were "personal," and therefore were not in violation of campaign finance law, per The Washington Post. But this argument has become increasingly dubious in recent days considering American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, said this week that it paid Karen McDougal $150,000 to keep her silent about her alleged affair with Trump for the sole purpose of ensuring she did not affect the election. Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has also said the payments had everything to do with the election.

Giuliani separately told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that even if Trump did violate campaign finance law, it's not big deal. "It's campaign finance, my God," he said. "Everybody pays a fine to the FEC that is in politics. You can’t follow all the rules.” Brendan Morrow