A foreign affairs expert laid out the horrifying scenario that President Donald Trump finds himself in now that the war with Iran is starting to escalate again.

The Trump administration has bombed Iran for nearly two consecutive weeks following the Iranian regime's decision to attack commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, an action that was prohibited under the memorandum of understanding that the two countries signed in June to reopen the Strait. While the administration has framed the strikes as a "tit-for-tat" operation, Brett McGurk, former Middle East expert on the National Security Council, told CNN's Brianna Keilar on "The Source" that the escalating tensions could end badly.

"I worked on this off and on for 20 years ... I think this is the most difficult predicament I've ever seen because Iran is determined to use its power drones and missiles to control the Strait of Hormuz, and they will target ships," McGurk said. "And when we hit them back, because I think we should do that if they're targeting commercial shipping, they will then target our bases, and they target our living quarters."

Over the weekend, reports indicated that three U.S. service members had died from Iranian drone strikes on U.S. bases in the region. The total number of service members killed in the war with Iran stands at 17, according to reports.

McGurk said the trajectory of the war suggests that the U.S. is in for a "long, hot summer."

"I'm sure the Iranians are in their bunkers thinking about targeting us," McGurk said. "This is going to continue. I was at this desk early in the summer. I said, I think we're heading into a very long, hot summer. And here we are in the middle of it. I just don't see the off-ramp.

A MAGA lawmaker and close Trump ally was called out Monday for his comments about troops dying during the Iran war as the United States has launched new strikes.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) spoke with CNN anchor Phil Mattingly about American casualties in the ongoing conflict, which has left 17 U.S. service members dead, including at least three who died during the last several days.

"My condolences go out to the families of our service men and women that are killed," Gimenez said. "That is the nature of warfare. We will have some casualties."

Gimenez argued that the United States has had a "low number of casualties" and acknowledged that this might not be comforting for Gold Star families.

The internet had a strong response to the Republican's remarks.

"Just brush off needless loss of life like an a------, it's Trump 101," progressive political commentator Rodger Williams wrote on X.

"Wow, so heartwarming. SMH. This regime is nothing but ghouls," the X account Gig - The Great Gig in the Sky, which has more than 47,000 followers and frequently comments on politics, wrote.

"Easy for a punka-- politician with no skin in the game to say about troops to have sacrificed for something completely unnecessary," Marc Xavier Adams, who self-describes as retired USMC and a Democrat, wrote on X.

"So disrespectful," user xtine_mac, a political commentator, wrote on X.

"It's sickening how Rep Gimenez talks about young people dying in a war as if their lives were not worth much. If you are going to spend our nation's most valuable assets you should make sure that's the only choice you have. That's certainly not true in this case," attorney George Suggs wrote on Bluesky.

"Stunningly callous," Bluesky user njcnlr, who self-identifies as a former communications director for a hunger relief agency, wrote.

FBI Director Kash Patel has planned a trip to Russia, making him the first FBI director to visit the country in 13 years, according to a Politico report on Monday.

The trip is slated for October 14-15, as Washington and Moscow have hit a deadlock over how to stop the war in Ukraine and as lawmakers have called for sanctions against the country, Politico reported.

It's unclear if he will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin or any of his top aides. The agenda for the visit was also unknown, sources told Politico.

"It would be an unusual and sensitive trip for an FBI chief to one of America’s top adversaries," according to Politico.

Patel has faced growing scrutiny from Congress in recent months over his frequent trips, and this trip to Moscow raises questions about his "history of involvement in controversial Russia-related matters dating to President Donald Trump’s first term, including trying to cast doubt on investigations into whether Trump colluded with Russia to help him win the 2016 election — an episode he now calls the 'Russiagate hoax.'"

Robert Mueller was the last FBI director to visit Russia in 2013, and later was appointed special counsel to investigate Russia's involvement with election interference.

"U.S. intelligence officials have concluded for years that Moscow has been behind efforts to sow discord and interfere in U.S. elections, findings supported by documents Trump declassified last week ahead of a speech intended to bolster support for his long-shot effort to overhaul U.S. voting laws," Politico reported. "The Kremlin has also been suspected to be behind major cybersecurity breaches of government agencies and private sector companies."'

News of the trip comes as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has faced off against senators in his confirmation hearings. Patel's trip in October "could prompt new questions from lawmakers about the Justice Department’s decision-making," according to Politico. In July, top Democratic leaders in the House and Senate Judiciary committees launched an investigation into Patel's potential use of taxpayer-funded resources.

President Donald Trump's war in Iran is not going the United States' way, former Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace on Monday's edition of "Deadline: White House."

This came after the Pentagon announced yet another round of servicemember deaths, as the ceasefire of a few weeks ago becomes a distant memory and the administration has not mapped out any public endgame for the war — a development Hertling mourned as "tragic."

"You've got to take a look at the operational campaign of both nations," said Hertling. Specifically, the U.S. has shifted its strategy from attacking weapons to "attacking the systems and encircling the cities that allow Iran to regenerate military power."

"That's also an attempt to reduce their societal will, because the Trump administration believes there's a split between the Republican Guards and the Ayatollah and the citizens," Hertling added. "So, they are bombing places like Bandar Abbas and Isfahan, transportation hubs, bridges, fuel distribution sites."

The whole idea, he said, is to "force a strategic decision" that would force Iran "back to the negotiating table."

The problem, said Hertling, is that Iran has its own strategy underway.

"They're keeping the Strait [of Hormuz] closed," said Hertling. "They're continuing to deplete U.S. defense capabilities, especially the rockets or the air defense systems that we have in the region. They're dividing the U.S. from their allies in the region, as we've seen in Jordan and Qatar and Kuwait and the U.A.E. They are hurting us tactically because they know that the U.S. will focus on individual combat deaths, as we did this weekend."

And all the while, he said, "they're opening new fronts for the proxies ... especially the Houthis in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that could close another waterway and could cause even more economic problems."

In short, he said, while the U.S. continues to strike targets, Iran is "trading space for time, and they're putting our allies and internal elements in the United States against us." And ultimately, he said, Iran has the "upper hand."

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A former Republican strategist said Monday that Stephen Miller, one of President Donald Trump's top aides, has gambled on stifling free speech and using fear to maintain power — but there's a chance it won't work.

In a Substack video, Steve Schmidt called out the White House deputy chief of staff, whom he referred to as "the architect of fear." Schmidt referred to Miller as the "most psychotic and unhinged advisor, a man with the blood of many on his hands, including Alex Pretti and Renee Good, including all of these people who lost their lives under the weight of his viciousness and his insanity."

The co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project made it clear that he views Miller as "an empty little Nazi" and "Little Goebbels of Santa Monica." He also identified how Miller doesn't have unchecked political power.

"We have the right to speech, and we have the right to faith, and we have the right to dissent, and we have the right to oppose this whack job with the full weight of our convictions," Schmidt argued.

Schmidt pointed to Trump's confusion on stage after Spain's FIFA World Cup win as an example of how "he's not capable psychologically of stepping away from power" — and that Miller is part of the problem.

"There are people around Donald Trump who encourage this, who stoke it, who provoke it," Schmidt added. "They believe that they're going to benefit from it. I think it's the worst bet ever made because for those who have placed it, my opposite wager is on their ruination because the survival of the American Republic depends on it. What these people have done and threatened, the thousands they have abused, the money they have stolen, the crimes they have committed cannot be gotten away with."

"If they are gotten away with, then that will mean Trump has won. If Trump wins, then the Republic dies. It's as simple as that. And the choice has always been as simple as that: America or Trump," he added.

Conservative commentator and journalist Saagar Enjeti sounded the alarm Monday over the United States’ dwindling supply of crude oil reserves, which, should the U.S. war against Iran continue, could bring about “literal shortages” in a matter of weeks, he warned.

The U.S.-Iran ceasefire collapsed earlier this month, and both sides have exchanged fire over the past week, with analysts increasingly doubtful a diplomatic resolution is still possible. As a result, the cost of oil surged this past week by more than 15%, and, according to the financial data company Barchart, the U.S. supply of crude oil has reached a 45-year low with just “43 days” of supply remaining.

“You need that slack to have confidence in the market that it'll be there when you order what you have – when all that gets taken away, and if it runs to zero, that's when stuff gets absolutely bonkers,” Enjeti said Monday on his political video podcast “Breaking Points.”

“It would be basically no confidence in the market – that's when export bans might come into play, literal shortages. This is the reason the Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists in the first place, and to now be at the lowest level since 1983, you just have no runway!”

Exacerbating fears of economic turmoil further, the Yemeni military organization the Houthis announced a new maritime blockade Monday on Saudi Arabia, putting at risk “the flow of millions of barrels” of oil. And China, which significantly reduced its oil imports after the United States first attacked Iran in February, is expected to “resume buying soon as it draws down its stockpiles.”

“There are two main reasons why gas is still not at catastrophic levels, although as of this morning, gas is right back to $4 a gallon nationally. One was Saudi Arabia: approximately 4.5 million barrels per day were coming out of the Bab Al Mandeb strait. That's roughly 3-4% of the world's oil supply, which the Houthis now say they will blockade,” Enjeti said.

“And then secondary is China: Chinese imports are beginning to rebound sharply. China was importing roughly 12 million barrels per day right before the war began. That plummeted below 6 million barrels per day after the outbreak of the war. A resumption means it will put significant pressure on the global oil market.”

Enjeti continued, “So, if you have two primary shocks that are already coming into a shocked system – the five-month closure of the Strait of Hormuz – things can get catastrophic very quickly.”

The consequences of President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran took a dire turn Monday after the Houthis, a Yemeni political and military organization, announced a new maritime blockade on the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia — a move that could put “at risk the flow of millions of barrels” of oil, according to Bloomberg.

“The literal nightmare scenario,” warned conservative journalist and commentator Saagar Enjeti Monday in a social media post on X to his more than 517,000 followers.

The maritime blockade was instituted, the Houthis said in a statement, in response to Saudi Arabian attacks on Yemen’s capital city, Sana’a, and will be implemented immediately.

According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia has diverted close to three-quarters of its oil exports through the port of Yanbu, which rests in the Red Sea, since the disruption to trade through the Strait of Hormuz. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen share coastlines along the Red Sea, with the Houthis well positioned to enforce the embargo and disrupt Saudi Arabia’s energy exports.

“The announcement adds to a slew of risks facing global oil supplies. Maritime traffic through the Hormuz Strait, where about a fifth of the world’s oil flowed, remains near standstill amid tit-for-tat attacks between the US and Iran,” Bloomberg’s report reads.

“Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Houthis have been on the rise since last week when Riyadh attacked the airport in Sana’a. Houthis then attacked a southern Saudi airport, the worst flare-up between them since a ceasefire in 2022.”

Amid the recent attacks in the U.S. war against Iran, oil prices have resurged, with the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States reaching $4 again after it rose more than 15% in a single week, the first time the national cost for a gallon of gasoline eclipsed $4 since June 17.

Despite her high-profile role as the head of CBS News, Bari Weiss is entering into a new dalliance with a conservative billionaire — leaving no doubt where her sympathies lie, according to a new report.

Media watchdog Status has uncovered an expanding professional relationship between Weiss and Mathias Döpfner, the chief executive of Axel Springer, the German publishing conglomerate that owns outlets including Politico and Business Insider.

Döpfner had previously attempted to recruit Weiss more than a year ago, an effort that failed, Natalie Korach of Status reported. Now Döpfner has invited Weiss to speak at the 2026 Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, where she will share the stage honoring Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech investor and prominent Trump ally.

Weiss has accepted the invitation and plans to attend the late September event, delivering remarks to both in-person attendees and livestream viewers. Neither Axel Springer nor CBS News representatives would comment on the arrangement.

According to the report, the appointment signals a deepening professional alliance between Weiss and Döpfner that has persisted even after Axel Springer's failed attempt to acquire Weiss's outlet, The Free Press.

Korach wrote, "In the year since, Döpfner and Weiss have continued to cross paths across the media circuit, including at the POLITICO-CBS News gathering ahead of White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, where they were seen mingling alongside other media executives and Donald Trump administration officials."

Thiel's selection as honoree reflects Döpfner's broader "ideological repositioning," with Status reporting that, over the past year, the executive has steered Axel Springer decisively rightward, completing acquisitions of conservative outlets like The Telegraph and exploring deals for right-leaning publications including The Dispatch. Döpfner has simultaneously "cultivated" stronger relationships with the Trump White House, including direct meetings with chief of staff Susie Wiles.

The decision to celebrate Thiel—whose track record includes backing ventures many in the journalism community view as hostile to press independence—sends a particular message at a moment when the Trump administration is intensifying attacks on media institutions, Status reported.

The award ceremony represents yet another signal that Weiss continues aligning herself with an increasingly influential network of conservative billionaires reshaping the media landscape, Korach observed.

An Australian broadcaster was mystified by President Donald Trump's stunt at the World Cup Final on Sunday, which was caught on a hot mic.

Trump accompanied FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the field for the trophy presentation ceremony following Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup Final in New York on Sunday. Trump was roundly booed by the crowd as the two men walked onto the field, and he stuck around for the team photo, which seemed to catch Infantino off guard.

One of the broadcasters was seemingly confused by the visual.

"Are they going to edit him out of that?" the broadcaster from SBS Australia said, referring to the image of Trump and Infantino on stage while the confetti cannons rang out and the Spanish team hoisted the trophy.

The World Cup Final was not the first time that Trump seemed to overstay his welcome during a trophy presentation ceremony. Trump awkwardly stuck around for the FIFA Gold Club World Cup trophy ceremony with Chelsea last year, which baffled some of the team's stars.

A seemingly confused President Donald Trump wandered into a photo of Spain's World Cup celebration on Sunday, catching some attendees off guard.

Trump accompanied FIFA President Gianni Infantino to present the World Cup trophy to Spain after the team defeated Argentina 1-0 on Sunday. After shaking hands with players from both sides and presenting the trophy, Infantino and other officials departed the stage. However, Trump wandered in front of the team toward the opposite end of the stage.

In the end, Infantino was seen running across the stage to accompany Trump.

It was not the first time that a seemingly confused Trump had wandered off during a photo opportunity. Trump also wandered off during a photo-op at the G7 Summit in France back in June. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also appeared to guide Trump during their meeting in Ankara on July 7.

President Donald Trump was loudly booed on Sunday when he was introduced to the crowd during the World Cup trophy ceremony.

Trump accompanied FIFA President Gianni Infantino and world leaders like Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and Spain's King Felipe to the trophy ceremony after Spain defeated Argentina in the World Cup Final 1-0. When Trump made his way out of the tunnel and onto the field, the crowd reacted with boos and jeers.

Infantino continued leading the crowd toward the stage as Trump waved to the crowd.

Trump has been booed at multiple sporting events that he's attended. Recently, he was booed at New York's Madison Square Garden during the NBA Finals. He was also loudly booed at a UFC event in Miami back in April.

The New York Times stunned Americans Sunday when it revealed a new FBI directive regarding ICE agents — and people who accuse them of violence.

Federal agents across the nation received instructions last week not to investigate confrontations with immigration agents, sources told Times reporters Hamed Aleaziz and Devlin Barrett.

"F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday...The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts," Aleaziz and Barrett wrote.

"If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers."

The directive arrived after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford —and as protests mount nationwide in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and of course, Texas and Maine.

One Maine protesters' sign read "a man was lynched here."

The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security denied the policy change in a joint statement to the Times.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed," the statement said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Trump administration was met with a wave of criticism as the Times report began to spread.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, professed himself stunned.

"WOW," he wrote. "The Trump admin just barred the FBI from investigating cases where DHS officers get into confrontations with immigrants or citizens. ICE HSI will lead all investigations, yet HSI has no jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations. The fox is guarding the henhouse."

Jim Roberts, editor of nonprofit news site the 74, called it "an utterly lawless administration."

But Andrew Alvarez, a conservative political commentator and self-described MAGA supporter, took a different view.

"Finally getting the feds out of the way so ICE can do their job without constant harassment," he wrote.

David Brouillette, the ICE agent who fatally shot Guerrero in Maine, has been accused of harassment himself, by two former wives, reports show. His ex-wife Ashley Brouillette told CBS News she was stunned he gained employment with ICE.

"I don't understand how he keeps getting these jobs where there are firearms involved," she said. "He's a danger to people and to himself...And I just don't understand how he keeps getting away with it."

Meanwhile, as the New York Times report whipped across the internet, FBI director Kash Patel took a moment to share with the public, not a response, but a photograph of himself with the team assigned to the FIFA World Cup.

"So proud of this FBI and all our partners," he wrote.

President Donald Trump could be headed for public humiliation Sunday afternoon as he sets out to hand out the World Cup trophy, according to a new report.

Trump could face a crowd of red-card waving dissenters at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey if a coalition of artists and activists has its way, the Daily Beast was first to report.

The message the cards send — via the activists' website, is this: “After review, for political corruption and abuse of the presidency—the decision is RED CARD!”

Activists have already handed out hundreds of red cards to soccer fans headed to the World Cup, the Daily Beast reported.

The cards are stamped with a website that instructs dissenters to wave their cards when Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino take the stage to present the winning team in the Argentina-Spain match with a trophy.

Marianne Downes, of the Northeast Queens Indivisible Group, handed cards to fans heading to the stadium from Penn Station, the Daily Beast reported.

“I’m protesting because we need to maintain some freedoms and democracy in this nation, and they are being eroded every single day,” Downes said.

Downes told the Daily Beast she had no problem giving away her cards, dolling out about 250 in 40 minutes.

The activists' website includes a lengthy condemnation of the Trump over reports his net worth has nearly tripled to $6.2 billion and accusations his administration slow-walked the release of files on Jeffrey Epstein.

"Trump is the most corrupt president in American history," it states. "No one deserves a ‘Red Card’ more than President Trump."

President Donald Trump's Sunday morning demand that Republicans "add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill" after two U.S. service members were killed in Jordan has fueled outrage and the spread of conspiracy theories online.

Trump's Truth Social comment on the fatal war in Iran referenced death only in his reliance on the name of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

"Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "That’s what Lindsey wanted to do."

This comment appears to be a correction of one Trump made earlier in the week — saying Graham would have wanted the Senate to pass the Clarity Act — that reportedly made one ally "wince."

“The most obvious and logical way [to honor Graham] would be the sanctions bill, because it’s his bill,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Politico. “You’re not making anything up."

The bi-partisan bill would slap sanctions on buyers of Russian oil and gas, according to Politico, in a report describing Graham as a "one of the chamber’s fiercest Russia hawks."

"The problem is, the sanctions bill still faces serious doubts among some Republicans," Politico reported. "Graham at multiple points over the past year believed he had talked Trump into backing the measure, only for it to be put on ice as Trump tried to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin."

On Sunday, Trump's oft-reported praise of Putin spurred Garry Kasparov, an anti-authoritarian activist, to suggest the Truth Social post foreshadowed a new change to the legislation.

"Soon, Trump will be saying that Graham really only wanted Iran to be on the sanctions bill and not Russia at all, and that in fact, in private, he thought Putin was a strong leader they could work with," Kasparov wrote.

Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski called out Trump for having lifted the sanctions in June.

"Seems like only yesterday the Trump Admin was lifting sanctions on Iran and declaring victory," he wrote.

Activist podcaster Amy Siskind responded by citing recent Wall Street Journal reporting that Iran pocketed up to $6 billion from oil shipments after those sanctions were lifted.

"Now Iran is is using that money to target and kill US troops, likely with the help of intelligence from China and Russia," Siskind wrote. "What a full-fledged disaster of foreign policy!"

But conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer celebrated Trump's comment and used it as an excuse to recirculate her baseless theory that Graham's "sudden death" had been orchestrated by Russian and Iranian operatives — despite his office confirming cardiovascular disease was the root cause.

"President Trump just called for Republicans to add Iran to the Russian sanctions bill," Loomer wrote. "Great idea. And then the DOJ needs to arrest every single American Woke Reich influencer who is colluding with Russia and Iran and attending their state sponsored propaganda tours. Their assets should be frozen."

President Donald Trump's brief response to the death of two service members in the Iran conflict has spurred outraged calls that he stand before Congress and explain himself.

Frustration mounted after news broke Saturday that two service members had been killed by direct Iranian fire and, as tensions mounted, the president was playing golf.

On Sunday, former White House correspondent John Harwood took to X on Sunday to share with his 500,000 followers an Atlantic editorial from staff writer Tom Nichols.

"Nichols asks Trump to do what a sane, decent president would do," wrote Harwood, "explain clearly and sensibly why he continues to send US troops into harm's way against Iran. [I]f only Trump were sane and decent."

Nichols' editorial goes further in condemning both the war and Trump's passing comment to a right-wing NewsNation reporter that the deaths were "very sad."

"Trump does not seem to comprehend that Iran has a higher pain tolerance than America," wrote Nichols. "Two more deaths are not, as Trump calls them, merely a “very sad thing.”

In his editorial, Nichols argued the 16 young Americans who lost their lives in the war deserved a better from Trump. Specifically, the writer called for a better explanation of why their lives were sacrificed.

"The Iranian mullahs are among the world’s worst tyrants, and Trump could have made the case for ridding the planet of their rule over a nation of more than 90 million people," Nichols wrote.

"But the president has not seen fit, in all this time, to give one address to the American people or to Congress about why he plunged the United States into war, the global economy into chaos, and young Americans into danger."

Nichols predicted Trump will escalate the war before he gives a thorough, detailed explanation to the American public, then made a final demand.

"Before one more member of the U.S. military is killed," wrote Nichols, "he should return to the airwaves—and stand before Congress—to explain what he’s doing in Iran and how many more lives he’s willing to risk."

House Republicans lashed out at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani Saturday after reports revealed that the rising star in the Democratic Party was actively considering arresting a key ally to President Donald Trump.

Speaking with The New York Times, Mamdani revealed that he was having “active” conversations with the New York City Law Department about whether he could order the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s scheduled to visit New York City in September for a gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.

In 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged crimes related to Israel’s siege on Gaza, which countless human rights groups and a United Nations committee have labeled a genocide. The ICC alleged that Netanyahu has used starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directed attacks on civilians.

“Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end,” Mamdani told the Times when asked whether he planned to order the arrest of Netanyahu, long a key ally to Trump.

Responding to reports of Mamdani’s remarks, the official House Republicans account on X lashed out at the progressive mayor and urged him to instead focus on addressing “antisemitism” in his city.

“Mamdani is threatening to arrest the head of one of our closest allies,” reads a post from the House Republicans’ account on X published Saturday. “He should stop politicizing local law enforcement and interfering with US foreign policy and instead focus on rising rent and housing prices and antisemitism in NYC.”

House Republicans’ post was shared by Netanyahu’s son, Yair Netanyahu, a podcast host and avid supporter of Israel who since 2023 has lived in a “luxury Florida apartment,” despite being eligible for military service, The Jewish Chronicle reported.

About 10,000 people in nearly two dozen villages in southern Iran were without drinking water while the region was under an excessive heat warning on Saturday, after the US struck a water desalination plant in the village of Bonji in one of its latest attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said the drinking water supply was expected to be restored within a week, and emergency supply operations had begun.

Drop Site News reported comments from the deputy governor for political and security affairs in Hormozgan province, who said several missiles had hit power infrastructure and water desalination plants in the region near the Strait of Hormuz, which President Donald Trump has demanded control over as he’s ramped up attacks on Iran in recent days, despite a ceasefire and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to end hostilities that was agreed to in June.

On Saturday, Iranian officials said the country was suspending its commitments to the MOU after the US violated the agreement repeatedly over the past week.

“The US has violated and suspended all its commitments within the framework of the Islamabad MOU,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi. “We also likewise have suspended all of our commitments as a result; we are no longer implementing those commitments.”

He added that Tehran is now “busy defending the country.”

A representative for Hormozgan province, Ahmad Moradi, told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that over the past two nights, “about seven to eight people” have been killed in US attacks, all of whom were civilians. One attack targeted a bridge and hit two family cars. The neighborhood of Tappeh Allaho Akbar in Bandar Abbas was also hit, killing a woman and injuring a one-year-old, whose wounds required doctors to amputate.

At least 116 telecommunication towers were out of service in southern Iran Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

The Iranian Embassy in India posted a video of the destruction of a bridge and also condemned the US attack on a maritime surveillance tower at the Chabahar Port, which US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth boasted about on social media on Thursday.

“For a state that once cast itself as the global champion of order, liberalism, and the war on terrorism, proudly displaying images of destroyed bridges and civilian infrastructure has become its only remaining ‘victory,’” said Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Saturday. “Yet with the collapse of every bridge, every tower, and every civilian facility, it is not merely steel and concrete that is being reduced to rubble. It is America’s moral standing—along with the entire architecture of international law and the civilizational claims of the West—that is crumbling before the world’s eyes.”

According to Drop Site, US attacks have targeted nine bridges, two airports, a railroad junction, and a road tunnel since Wednesday. At least 41 Iranians have been killed and 408 have been wounded in US attacks so far this month, with Iranian authorities reporting that at least three women and one child are among those killed.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, Amir-Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent UN representative, wrote on Saturday that US attacks had “targeted and caused extensive damage to ports, transportation networks, communications facilities, logistics hubs, radar installations, coastal defense systems and other infrastructure indispensable to the civilian population, and to the functioning of the national economy.”

“The continued commission of these unlawful armed attacks poses a grave threat to international peace and security, freedom of navigation, regional stability, and the security of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” wrote Iravani.

Iran has retaliated against the US this week by striking American allies, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. Kuwait’s government Saturday said a power plant and water treatment plant had been attacked for the second time in two days, as well as an oil facility.

Two US soldiers were killed and a third was missing after an Iranian attack on a US military base in Jordan—the first American service members to be killed from hostile fire since an initial ceasefire was brokered in April.

Roxane Farmanfarmian, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of Cambridge, told Al Jazeera that Iranian forces are “using Kuwait, in particular, as an example of what they can do in retaliation.”

“The US is clearly hitting the south in Iran and hitting airports, desalination plants, and bridges, and so the same kinds of things are being hit now in Kuwait to show what kind of effect Iran really can have on those countries that are hosting American bases,” she said.

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, echoed Iranian officials’ condemnation of the US attack on the southern water desalination plant on Saturday, saying it was “not a legitimate military target.”

“It is a war crime to target it,” he said.

News that two service members had been killed by direct Iranian fire rocked the nation on Saturday.

U.S. Central Command announced the two service member's death, a third's disappearance and four medical evacuations one day after a base was attacked in Jordon.

"Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM will withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified," the statement read.

Sixteen U.S. service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded since the war began, the Associated Press reported.

"The battle over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified in a conflict increasingly focused on control of the essential waterway that previously carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil," the Associated Press reported.

"The strikes threaten civilians and infrastructure, including desalination plants for drinking water, while the global economy again is on alert."

Americans responded to the news with words of outrage and despair.

"Really awful, dark, foreboding developments in the Middle East over the last 24 hours," wrote MS NOW analyst Sam Stein. "Hard to see how you deescalate from here."

Political strategist Mike Nellis condemned President Donald Trump for mounting an attack on Iran without approval from Congress.

"I will ask again: for what?" Nellis wrote. "Trump has no plan, no clear mission, and he’s getting our sons and daughters killed for his own vanity."

Nellis later added, "I’ll tell you what: if Barack Obama had launched an illegal war, 16 U.S. service members were dead, and another was missing in action, the MAGA media machine would be frothing at the mouth. Right now? Quiet as a church mouse. F---ing cowards."

Political podcaster Shaykh Sulaiman said simply, "Due to Trump’s illegal war."

Trump's tariff threats against Canada because of its wildfires drew online outrage as critics jumped to the neighboring country's defense.

On Friday, Trump went after Canada in a Truth Social post because of smoke from its wildfires, which he said is "costing the United States Billions of Dollars." He warned that the "cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

Trump's attack drew swift condemnation on social media.

"Such a neighborly thing to do," reacted Democratic strategist Leslie Marshall.

"America's mad king is now threatening Canada with additional tariffs because of the wildfire smoke," Canadian journalist Geoffrey P. Johnston wrote. "America is kicking us when we are down. This is unforgivable. Canada & USA will never be friends again after this. Too many Americans are going along with Trump's insanity."

"He is such a d— embarrassment!" national opinion columnist Sophia A. Nelson described Trump.

"Trump is a climate science denier," writer Matthew Todd pointed out. "He's aggressively heating the planet - and then blaming Canada. This is all so intolerable. How are we meant to exist in this hell?"

"Man you gotta be kidding me," reporter Mike Freeman reacted.

The popular account Republicans against Trump pointed out, "higher tariffs on Canadian goods mean higher prices for American consumers."

Others pointed out that Canada has sent firefighters to the U.S. to help combat wildfires. MeidasTouch, a political news network, noted, "When fires ravaged Southern California, Canada sent firefighting crews to help battle the blazes."

"When wildfires hit America, Canada sends firefighters," wrote journalist Aaron Parnas. "When wildfires hit Canada, America sends tariffs."

President Donald Trump was furious with Canada on Friday as wildfires and smoke prompted major air quality concerns for the Midwest and Northeast.

Trump dropped threats in a post on his Truth Social platform.

"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!" Trump wrote.

He said he planned to call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to "find out what they are going to do about it."

"The cost is incalculable! Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result," Trump wrote. "This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Trump wasn't the only Republican leader to lob frustration at America's northern neighbor.

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) took to X Thursday to complain about poor air quality as more than 890 fires burned across Canada. Her frustration was met with backlash, as critics online pointed out how Canada had offered the United States help in January 2025 as wildfires ravaged southern California.

A Republican lawmaker was called out on Friday for her remarks about Canada's wildfires and smoke — comments critics said overlooked Canada's help fighting California's own fires, the Daily Beast was first to report.

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) took to X Thursday to complain about poor air quality as more than 890 fires burned across the Canada and smoke hit the Midwest and Northeast.

“Michiganders shouldn’t have to breathe Canada’s negligence,” she wrote on X. “YEAR AFTER YEAR the smoke crosses the border while Canada does nothing. Stop exporting your smoke into our skies. Enough is enough!”

This comment stands in stark contrast to that made by the Canadian government in January 2025 as wildfires ravaged southern California.

"The Government of Canada and all Canadians express their deep sadness at the devastating wildfires currently impacting southern California," the statement read.

"Team Canada stands ready to reciprocate that support during this time of need.... We have left no stone unturned and are exploring all avenues to offer our support to the people of California."

Social media users were quick to make the MAGA congresswoman aware of this point.

"The most idiotic self centered comment," Dave Mac, a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, wrote on X. "When California was burning who was there ? CANADA "

His comment had nearly 4,000 likes on the platform as of Friday morning.

Other users echoed this comment and mentioned the hypocrisy.

User AJ Punk, a political commentator, struck a sarcastic tone when he wrote on X, "How dare Canada burn their country down and ruin America's summer!"

Progressive commentator David Ro wrote, "When Michigan and Ontario were hit with disastrous Tornados and storms that came From the U.S. mid West. Canada did not complain or threaten the U.S. Instead they sent hundreds of hydro crews to Michigan to get the lights back on. That’s what friends do."

President Donald Trump's public address may have severely damaged the nation's delicate relationship with China and threatened a crucial summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this fall, NBC News reported Friday.

Trump on Thursday night leveled explosive allegations that China had illicitly obtained 220 million American voter files—including names, addresses, phone numbers, and political party preferences, the report noted.

NBC reported that Trump branded it "the largest compromise of election data in history," but offered no credible evidence to support the claim.

His statements were undercut by a 2021 memo from the current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, MS NOW reported on Friday morning.

The allegations immediately backfired. China's foreign ministry swiftly rejected the accusations as fabricated, with spokesperson Lin Jian dismissing Trump's claims as a "malicious smear" designed to undermine bilateral relations.

"China has consistently adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries," Lin stated at a Beijing briefing Friday. "China has no interest in, and has never interfered in, U.S. elections."

The timing couldn't be worse, NBC News reported, as both nations attempt to maintain a fragile trade ceasefire while navigating deep geopolitical tensions.

Trump's public accusations—which contradict findings from his own CIA Director John Ratcliffe, based on a 2021 memo—now threaten to unravel months of diplomatic groundwork, the report stated.

While Trump stopped short of explicit threats toward Beijing or Xi personally, experts warn the damage to relations is substantial. The accusations inject fresh hostility into an already fraught dynamic.

"Beneath the veneer of Washington and Beijing trying to get along, there continues to be friction," Ja Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore told NBC. "This could add to that."

MS NOW’s David Rohde argued Friday morning that CIA Director JohnRatcliffe needs to explain why he let President Donald Trump make false claims that contradict his own investigation.

Rohde appeared on "Morning Joe" to discuss the top CIA official's presence in the room on Thursday night when the president accused China of tampering with US elections.

He then held up a government memo from Ratcliffe authored that stated otherwise.

“This speech to me just shows how desperate, delusional and dangerous this administration, this president is becoming,” he began. "Just on Ratcliffe, I think he owes an explanation to the American people.”

Holding up the memo, he continued, “This is a public document. This is his dissent that he put out in January 2021 after the election. And the main point he made was that he believed that the amount, the effort to shape, not to interfere, not to change votes — there is no mention in this document from John Ratcliffe that China tried to or changed any votes in the 2020 election. John Ratcliffe simply made the argument that the Chinese effort to influence the operation through propaganda and bots online was larger than the broader assessment that Representative Jim Himes was just talking about.”

“And that dissent is actually in this document: It's actually public,” he continued. “And so if there's anyone who should be held to account now, whether it's by President Trump or if he testifies before Congress, it's John Ratcliffe, he either lied, allowed this giant plot to happen where all this was hidden from the president. He is a member of the deep state, or he did not, and which one is it? Director Ratcliffe, were you part of a deep state plot that hid from the president?”

- YouTube youtu.be

Trump's claims about China interfering in U.S. elections were fact-checked by political analysts in real-time using documents he released.

In Trump's Thursday night speech, he announced that his administration would be releasing documents and intelligence findings that support his claim that China meddled in the 2020 U.S. elections. However, the documents didn't show anything of the sort, analysts noted.

During the speech, CNN senior national security reporter Zachary Cohen pointed out in a post on X that CNN had reviewed documents Trump was talking about in his speech.

The documents "largely discuss vulnerabilities that have been known for years and/or are reflected in the 2021 US intel community assessment," Cohen wrote. "None of the declassified information supports the claim that any previous election results — including the 2020 presidential contest that Trump lost — were manipulated by foreign interference or fraud in a way that would've changed the outcome."

Legal analyst Adam Klasfeld similarly explained in a post on X that "Trump is lying about the intelligence community's findings about China's actions in the 2020 election," and shared the files.

One line of findings from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence shared by Klasfeld read, "We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US presidential election."

Also looking at one of the documents touted by Trump, reporter Sam Stein wrote, "One of the documents that Trump has disclosed tonight has a section noting that China targeted the BIDEN campaign and does 'not currently intend to covertly interfere to try and sway the outcome of the election."

Political commentator Kyle Griffin noted, "Donald Trump took 18 months to release documents that he now claims show election activities that would have taken place on his watch in 2020."

President Donald Trump is privately furious about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent moves to snub and try to control him, Axios reported on Thursday.

The spat between the two, who were firm allies for years as leaders of their respective countries' right-wing coalitions, involves multiple recent incidents.

For one, said the report, White House aides "were surprised in recent days to read in the Israeli press that President Trump would host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday," as no such meeting had been scheduled. "Trump said at the time that Netanyahu could visit right after the president returned from the NATO summit in Ankara," but it went nowhere. Insiders told Axios that "Our impression was that Bibi was trying to will a meeting into existence."

This was not the only issue widening the rift between Trump and Netanyahu.

The argument over the meeting, according to the report, "came after Netanyahu went on Fox News right before Trump left for Ankara and criticized the president's intention to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. One of the White House officials told Axios Trump was 'p----- off' by the interview."

The relationship between Trump and the Israeli leader had been deteriorating for months prior to this, driven by Trump's frustration over the lack of a clean resolution to the invasion of Gaza that began in 2023 after a devastating terrorist attack. Several weeks ago, Trump reportedly shouted at Netanyahu in an expletive-filled phone call, telling him "everybody hates you."

President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency dealings earned him a massive amounts of wealth — effectively rigging the whole industry in his favor as if it's one of his old casinos, conservative analyst and talk radio host Erick Erickson warned on Thursday.

This comes after financial reports revealed Trump and his family have made over $1.4 billion from crypto assets alone under the new presidency, their single largest gain of assets.

"In gambling, they say never bet against the house," he wrote. "In crypto, President Trump has positioned himself as the house."

Erickson, a committed conservative Republican who nonetheless criticizes the president on occasion, pointed out Trump has made more of a profit on cryptocurrency "than every single publicly traded U.S. cryptocurrency company," which all combined finished out the year half a billion down.

The real problem, wrote Erickson, is so much of this money is flowing in from foreign sources.

"An Abu Dhabi state-backed fund chaired by the UAE’s national security adviser used $2 billion of World Liberty’s stablecoin to finance a deal — weeks before the White House cleared the UAE to buy advanced American AI chips," wrote Erickson.

This is by no means the only foreign racket currently in progress, he said.

"Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, manages more than $6 billion — 99% of it foreign, including $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund — while Kushner serves as a peace envoy dealing with those very governments," wrote Erickson.

All of this only scratches the surface of the problem, Erickson said.

If the GOP "meant what they said" in 2016 when they vowed to "drain the swamp," wrote Erickson, "the test is simple, and it applies to their own side: no foreign money flowing to the president’s family while the government it deals with awaits a decision; no regulators dropping cases against companies the first family owns; no one betting on state secrets; real divestment, not divestment to one’s children."

"Drain the swamp. Don’t just recycle the water for our side," he concluded.

A conservative Haitian pastor who helped marshal support for President Donald Trump spoke out on Wednesday, saying many people in the community are feeling betrayed by an administration that is trying to strip some of their right to live in the U.S., according to a new report.

Rev. Daniel Ulysse, who leads the Haitian American Republican Caucus, spoke with Mother Jones about what life has been like for members of his group during the second Trump administration. Last year, the administration abruptly ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 Haitians, a move that the Supreme Court ruled was legal last week, even though it would force the people to return to a war-torn country.

Ulysse told the outlet that it is a "very difficult moment" for his community, which has been compounded by the sense of betrayal they feel.

“Nobody’s speaking for Haiti, so I have to devote most of my time, my energy, for Haiti,” Ulysse told Mother Jones.

"Many of them feel betrayed because they were expecting a better outcome from the Trump administration than Biden," he added. "Many of them voted for Trump. We supported him, and he pledged to help Haiti, to be Haiti’s greatest champion, and that never materialized."

Ulysse added that many people in his community would return home if Haiti were stable.

"They’re afraid. They are sad. They’re very angry. They wouldn’t mind going back to Haiti, but the place is a mess," Ulysse said. "It’s got worse. It gets worse because of the mercenaries. All they do is create problems, kill people, [and] make money. So it’s a total mess with the American administration right now, where big money makes the decision."

President Donald Trump's primetime speech on Thursday is expected to feature a bombshell allegation against China, according to CBS News.

Sources familiar with the speech that Trump teased earlier this week say it will accuse China of election meddling, the report indicated. Trump had only teased that his speech would focus on election security, but didn't reveal much else.

"Part of President Trump's speech Thursday night is expected to touch on previously unreported alleged Chinese meddling in U.S. elections," CBS News reported, adding that Trump alleges that "Beijing compromised U.S. voter data and evidence the CIA knew about the action."

Trump will also say that the CIA "didn't share that information with Mr. Trump during his first term," CBS News added, noting Trump invited the current heads of major intelligence and national security agencies and members of Trump's cabinet.

"Among those invited are the heads of the CIA, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Homeland Security," CBS News reported.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the sourcing as speculation when asked by CBS News about the contents of Trump's speech.

"As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what President Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening," Leavitt told CBS News in a statement. "The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in."

FBI Director Kash Patel and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles "helped personally orchestrate" an investigation into who leaked information about President Donald Trump's Qatari-gifted airplane and its security shortcomings — demanding some officials turn over their phones, according to a new CNN report published Wednesday.

Trump was apparently furious that information about the plane, which was meant to be used as Air Force One, went public. Investigators were reportedly seeking information from officials who traveled with the president.

A source told CNN that as the investigation was underway, at least one federal agency contacted its employees via email to warn that if they were contacted by outside agencies or groups requesting information or devices, then they should contact their agency's attorneys.

"The sources said Patel — who had been preparing to travel to Chicago — was diverted to the White House on Friday to take a hands-on role in running the probe, which became public early the next morning when the New York Times reported that the Justice Department had issued subpoenas to four of its journalists who reported on security concerns surrounding the new plane," CNN reported.

"Patel posted up in an office next to Wiles’ for roughly seven hours, as the two established what one source referred to as a 'war room' in the West Wing," according to CNN.

Not all White House officials were asked to turn over their phones.

"The effort reflects the extent to which the White House was willing to exert control over a law enforcement investigation — a significant breach of the Justice Department’s historic independence, though one that has become somewhat common in Trump’s administration," CNN reported.

A former Republican strategist blasted President Donald Trump and his "vandals" for betraying Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) last crusade with "nonsense."

During an episode of The Warning, Steve Schmidt talked about how Trump is "putting a great deal of money" into Russian President Vladimir Putin's pockets with the Iran war. Late senior Sen. Lindsey Graham had just come back from Ukraine and, as Schmidt noted, was ready to propose sanctions against Russia when he died.

"Lindsey Graham, a few hours before his death, was talking about his Russia sanctions bill," Schmidt said. "When Donald Trump launched his war with Iran, global oil prices spiked, putting a great deal of money into whose pocket? That's right, Vladimir Putin's pocket."

Graham was a loyal Trump ally, Schmidt noted as he blasted "the shallowness, the abject stupidity of MAGA policy and the MAGA senators who are celebrated in too many quarters as statesmen as opposed to imbeciles."

Schmidt didn't just go after Trump but also "Jared Kushner and his Abraham Accords, which are a disaster," and Kushner and "Steve Witkoff meddling around the world," calling it all "nonsense" that's leading to another war.

"They squeeze on the balloon, moving air around it in disruptive ways that are often, in the end, catastrophic," Schmidt said. "America losing a war to Iran means that there will be a bigger, more deadly war sometime in the next decade."

Speaking about the bigger war, Schmidt continued, "All of the seeds are being laid for it right now, today, as we speak, by the foolish men and women who have followed Trump to the edge of the abyss and over it."

Incumbent Carlos Vila Nova hopes to defeat his former party and secure second term as independent

Voters in São Tomé and Príncipe go to the polls for a presidential election on Sunday as one of Africa’s least populous countries seeks to burnish its democratic credentials.

According to the National Election Commission, about 142,000 people are registered to vote in the tiny African state’s elections, approximately 15% of whom live in the diaspora.

Hand-painted works are often wildly unfaithful to the movies they portray – reinterpretations that sometimes resulted in threats, insults and even physical attacks from viewers who felt duped

Sitting on his porch in Teshie near Accra, Heavy J dipped a brush into red oil paint and dabbed it carefully on to his canvas – a flour sack – adding blood to a knife being wielded by a man. Higher on the canvas, he had started on an outline of a skull.

Heavy J was creating a poster, but not as you might have expected for a horror film. Instead, it was for the animated fairytale The Little Mermaid. The man with the knife was not a killer but the film’s kind-hearted prince, Eric. The skull was also unrelated to the story. “We add more to make people interested,” said Heavy J, whose real name is Jeaurs Affutu.

Aid workers are first known people to quarantine at facility, which sparked huge opposition in Kenya

Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility in ⁠Kenya after the US government introduced travel ⁠restrictions, the head of a US charity ​employing them told Reuters.

The aid workers are the first known people to quarantine at the facility, which has sparked huge opposition in Kenya and is at the heart of a legal case in which a court has ordered the work to be ⁠suspended. Construction continued, however, according to US officials and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters.

Critics say Foreign Office figures send ‘global message about the role the country wants to play on international stage’

Labour’s foreign aid cuts mean reductions of as much as 90% in the bilateral support the UK will give to some African countries, Foreign Office figures show.

The department’s annual report includes a long-awaited breakdown of how the reduction in the aid budget will affect individual countries for the next three years.

Country begins 42-day countdown to outbreak being declared officially over, as numbers continue to rise in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo

Uganda has started lobbying countries to lift Ebola-related travel restrictions after discharging its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital.

The discharge of a Congolese national from the Mulago national referral hospital’s isolation centre in Kampala on Thursday triggered the start of a 42-day countdown required by the World Health Organization before Uganda can officially be declared Ebola-free, provided no new infections are detected.

New report denounces Havana and claims ‘campaign of subversion’ has infiltrated highest levels of US government

As part of the Trump administration’s continuing attack on left-leaning groups, the US state department has listed several activists and organizations as “front groups and fellow travelers” for Cuba, including Hasan Piker and Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls.

In a 100-page report released on Monday, the state department denounces Cuba as the “capital of 21st-century communism”, accusing the Cuban government of carrying out a “campaign of subversion” that has “infiltrated the highest reaches of the US government, recruited and cultivated generations of American activists [and] backed an unprecedented wave of leftwing terrorism on American soil”.

Turmoil likely as Trump officials say Canada unfairly discriminated against US autos, alcohol and dairy products

Donald Trump is imposing 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods in response to the country retaliating against previous US tariffs, the White House announced Monday, declaring Canada has unfairly discriminated against American cars, alcohol and dairy products.

The tariffs will hit a wide range of products, the White House said, including wine, hockey sticks and cement. They also include goods previously protected from import taxes under the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement.

Daniel Ortega, the 80-year-old authoritarian leader, says move will ‘build a wall’ against the opposition

Nicaragua’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has said the country will hold no further elections to prevent the opposition from coming to power.

The 80-year-old authoritarian leader, who has been in office since 2007, also said he would work with the congress he controls to pass new laws that would “build a wall” against the opposition.

Case against Ismael Zambada García, who helped co-found and lead the violent Sinaloa cartel, unfolded in New York

The Mexican drug kingpin, Ismael Zambada García, known as “El Mayo”, was sentenced in a US federal court on Monday to life in prison, after a plea deal last year in which he admitted ⁠to shipping vast amounts of cocaine and other substances as leader of the violent Sinaloa cartel.

Zambada is 76 and one of the most high-profile Mexican ⁠drug traffickers to be sentenced in a US court since his fellow Sinaloa leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán ​was sentenced to life in prison in ‌2019. The case unfolded in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Officials say smoke from US fires has crossed border days after US president accused Canada of improper fire management

After days of acrid smoke from northern wildfires choking major US cities and inspiring Donald Trump to threaten Canada with tariffs, officials now say the reverse is also happening as parts of Canada issue air quality warnings caused by American fires to the south.

Officials in the Canadian province of British Columbia warned in an alert on Saturday evening that smoke from US fires, spurred on by thousands of lightning strikes in the north-east, was creating smoky conditions as polluted air drifted north.

Many of the more than 100 people awaiting processing on the tiny Pacific island are skipping meals to make ends meet, a new survey has found

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Most refugees and asylum seekers held in Nauru’s detention centres say they cannot afford to buy enough food or access clean drinking water, despite the Australian government spending the equivalent of more than $9m per person last financial year.

The group of more than 100 people have been sent indefinitely to the tiny Pacific island while they wait for their asylum claims to be processed. Many of the cohort say they are skipping meals to make ends meet, according to a new survey by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) advocacy group.

Distillery owner could face only three months in jail over alleged poisoning of Australian teenagers

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The Australian government has increased its travel alert level for Laos, advising travellers to “exercise a high degree of caution” due to the risk of methanol poisoning.

It comes as a distillery owner in Laos was charged after a mass methanol poisoning incident killed six foreign nationals, including the Australian backpackers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles.

Escaped flowerhorn cichlids are causing concern for native species and about parasites capable of infecting humans

Escaped ornamental aquarium fish have integrated into a local ecosystem in the Philippines, but scientists say they may be threatening the native biodiversity of the lake.

Flowerhorn cichlids – human-bred hybrid fish prized for their bright-gold colour and prominent head humps – are believed to have escaped from breeding facilities into Lake Sampaloc, which sits in a volcanic crater, during a typhoon.

Arrest in Pennsylvania of Wu Shaoping, who is awaiting asylum decision, raises fears of deportation and persecution

A Chinese human rights lawyer has been arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), raising concerns he could be deported to China where he would face persecution.

Wu Shaoping fled China at the end of 2019 amid a crackdown on human rights lawyers. He travelled to the US on a tourist visa and made an asylum claim in 2020, for which he is still awaiting a decision.

Storms are typical during intense heat but this week’s have been extreme. Plus, deadly monsoon rains in Bangladesh

Hailstones the size of golf balls have been seen in French villages as, on top of the exceptional European heatwave, thunderstorms have struck across parts of Europe.

While thunderstorms are typical during and after a period of extreme heat, the storms across countries such as France, Germany and Poland have been particularly severe, bringing flooding, strong winds and heavy showers with large balls of hail.

Airline says communication ‘could have been better’ after about 250 passengers waited hours for flight to Denpasar to leave. Follow today’s news live

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Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.

Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

We want to see more Australian ideas commercialised, more Australian technology deployed globally, and more of the economic value harnessed here at home.

One Nation leader posts network’s proposal to travel to UK to explore what Australia faces ‘if we don’t take back control of who comes to our country’

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A Seven producer urged Pauline Hanson to travel to Britain to meet Nigel Farage and film a Spotlight special highlighting so-called “uncontrolled immigration”, according to a pitch posted to social media by the One Nation leader.

The pitch also suggested that Seven might cover some of the travel costs for the One Nation leader and her team and that the program wanted the Reform UK leader to “invite Ms Hanson to Britain”.

Jenitar Na’amoana’s already had four children when she learned of surprise pregnancy ‘unheard of’ in Australia

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A 34-year-old woman from Brisbane has defied the odds and delivered four naturally conceived, identical quadruplets in what is believed to be an Australian first.

Jenitar Na’amoana, who already had four children, was not planning having another but the quadruplets emerged from a “one in 15 million” pregnancy, splitting into four from a single fertilised egg.

Exclusive: Research spanning 82 countries finds antibiotic resistance increased in every region between 2004 and 2022

Harry Booth has had a rough run through Australia’s coldest months. The 13-year-old has been in and out of hospital with a range of common chest and urinary tract infections that his doctors found challenging to treat.

Harry was born with kidney failure and began dialysis at six months old, before receiving a kidney transplant from his father at age four. The surgery saved his life but comes with a trade-off: he now needs to take medications that suppress his immune system to prevent his body from rejecting the kidney.

Resorts in New South Wales and Victoria face a warm and dry start to the season with only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas

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Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.

Ski areas of Mount Hotham and Falls Creek set July records for their hottest daytime and night-time temperatures and Thredbo also set a new hottest July day, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Judit Polgár says she does not ‘feel enough strength within me’ to take on the responsibility of uniting a divided nation

The Hungarian chess ⁠legend Judit Polgár has said she will not accept the nomination for president, only a day after the ⁠prime minister, Péter Magyar, ⁠said he ​would ask her to take up the largely ceremonial role.

Magyar had said he would meet Polgár on Monday to discuss the matter. “Our country needs unity, peace and a president that all Hungarians can be proud of,” he wrote on social media. “Judit Polgár’s name has been synonymous with talent and perseverance for decades.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff hints government may be about to sack Oleksandr Syrskyi

Ukraine’s commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskyi is widely expected to lose his job amid signs that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has bowed to pressure from protesters and will reshuffle the army’s top leadership.

Over the past five days, thousands of demonstrators have gathered outside the presidential office in Kyiv, chanting: “Syrskyi out.” They have demanded Zelenskyy reinstate Mykhailo Fedorov, who was fired as defence minister last week after a clash with Syrskyi and the general staff.

Moscow targets southern city after the Russian capital was hit by 400 drones in response to one of the war’s biggest attacks on Kyiv at the weekend

There is also a bit more from Reuters on the context – and the significance – of these continued strikes on ships:

“Both Russia and Ukraine are major grain exporters, and ​the renewed violence on this route has ​raised concerns about supply.

Ukraine, which in recent ​seasons accounted for about 6% of global wheat exports and about 11% of global corn ​exports, has lost about a ‌third of its capacity ​to export grain via ​its Black Sea ports due to Russian missile and drone attacks, traders and analysts have said.

“Upon prime minister @KoretskyiUA’s instructions, @MFA_Ukraine is already informing the International Maritime Organization and our international partners about Russia’s latest attacks on civilian shipping, as well as the governments of the states whose citizens were killed or injured.

During president @ZelenskyyUa‘s recent visit to London, I discussed this issue with the IMO leadership and called for the deployment of an international monitoring mission to Ukraine’s ports. We expect this mission to begin its work as planned in the fall and help document every act of Russia’s maritime terror, paving the way for accountability.”

Chinese retail platform handed penalty over listings for items such as counterfeit products and unsafe toys

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The Chinese online retail platform AliExpress has been fined a record €550m (£470m) by the EU over its failure to stop illegal goods including harmful clothing, cosmetics and kitchen gadgets being sold through its site.

The European Commission fine is the biggest imposed by the bloc under Digital Services Act (DSA) legislation to protect consumers from illegal goods and deceptive or addictive marketing techniques.

From Nevada to Manchester, developers are trialling innovative solutions to clean energy’s biggest challenge

In the deserts of the United Arab Emirates a sprawling clean energy project, stretching across an area roughly the size of 12,600 football fields, will play host to a breakthrough allowing solar energy to power the equivalent of half a million homes through the night.

The Gulf state has been steadily combining 5.2GW of solar power capacity with 19GWh of battery storage to create the largest battery scheme in the world.

US says latest attack aimed at further degrading Iranian military capabilities; Yemen militant group threatens traffic moving through Bab el-Mandeb strait

• US launches 10th round of strikes as Iran says it is in ‘full-scale war’

The price of oil jumped in early Asian trade on Monday after the US carried out its latest wave of strikes on Iran and a vessel caught fire in the strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude for September delivery rose 2.72% to $90.50 a barrel by around 0100 GMT, after briefly crossing $91 – its highest price since June.

CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction.

Diplomats say de-escalation talks continue as Trump vows retaliation over US soldier deaths

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The US military said it has launched its 10th consecutive round of strikes on Iran to force the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

Earlier on Monday, Iran’s president said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the US expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washington’s Gulf allies, even as diplomats said talks to de-escalate were continuing.

Residents of Deir Jarir say raids late on Sunday, also involving security forces, are part of pattern of violence

Even by the brutal standards of militant settler violence in the West Bank, the raid on Deir Jarir late on Sunday night that killed two Palestinians and left another in hospital with a gunshot wound was extreme.

Palestinians in the town said settlers from a nearby outpost arrived after 9pm on Sunday claiming that they were searching for stolen livestock. Israeli soldiers and police soon joined them, protecting them as they sought to take several villagers’ sheep by force.

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• US says another troop killed as Israel warns Tehran’s attacks coming close

• Two US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacks

Jordanian authorities ⁠have not issued any decision ⁠to ​evacuate the airport or ⁠seaport in the city of Aqaba, and have not detected ⁠any potential threats ​in ‌the past ‌hours, the state ‌news agency cited the government spokesperson as saying.

This denial comes in response to the US embassy in Jordan earlier saying the airport and seaport in Aqaba had been evacuated by Jordanian authorities because of a “specific and credible threat” (see this post for more details).

US military says service member was killed in Iraq during ‘controlled detonation’ as it launches more airstrikes at Iran

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The US military announced another death of a service member as it launched more airstrikes at Iran on Sunday in response to the killing of American troops, and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel.

The US military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.