News Desk

United States President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of a peace deal between the US and Iran.

Oman is currently negotiating with Iran over the reopening of the critical Strait of Hormuz, while Iran has repeatedly stated that it will not speak directly to the US.

On Monday, as Iranian officials said they were close to announcing an agreement with Oman, a 60-day Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Washington and Tehran – which had provided for a period of peace talks but largely fell apart early on – expired with little hope for renewal.

This is not the first time Trump has threatened Oman, a US ally which has never entered into any direct conflict with the US. Oman, through whose territorial waters the contested Strait of Hormuz also flows, has positioned itself as a neutral party in the US-Iran war. Despite that, it has suffered a number of strikes by Iran, which has targeted US military assets and infrastructure around the region in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks.

Now, Trump is threatening to strike it as well.

Here is more about what Trump has threatened, and why.

What did Trump threaten Oman with?

Trump told US broadcaster Fox News on Monday that Iran should surrender, and claimed that his administration had opened a direct backchannel for talks with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

During the interview, he threatened to bomb US ally Oman if it “gets in the way” of US talks with Iran.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s*** out of them,” he said.

An IRGC spokesman denied Trump’s claim of direct talks, telling Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News: “There are no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans, and this lie by Trump is merely fantasies caused by the delusions and nightmares he has suffered as a result of defeat and desperation in the war.”

Has he threatened Oman before?

Monday was not the first time Trump threatened Oman over the course of the five-month war between the US and Iran. In May, he made a similar threat.

At a cabinet meeting on May 27, a reporter asked Trump what he thought about the idea of Oman and Iran jointly overseeing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

“ Would you accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the strait?” the reporter asked.

Trump replied with a seemingly offhand threat. “Nobody is going to control it. It’s international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

While there was initial speculation that Trump might have misspoken and said “Oman” instead of “Iran”, the US State Department later shared the comment on social media, with a transcript of the quote that referred to the Arab country.

What is the context for all this?

For the past few weeks, Iran and Oman have been engaged in direct talks, facilitated by mediators in Qatar, to reach an agreement over how to manage maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in the future.

While Iran had agreed to keep the strait open to shipping without charge for 60 days following the signing of the MoU with the US on June 17, this quickly fell apart as the two sides disagreed over who had ultimate control over the strait – in particular which routes ships should take. Towards the end of June, Iran launched strikes on a number of ships which had followed an Oman-issued route, approved by the US, rather than its own route, and the US restarted strikes on Iran for nearly two weeks.

Following that, Iran refused to talk directly to the US, saying it had violated the terms of the MoU which included a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, and began talks with Oman over the future of the strait instead. Iran also issued a list of new demands relating to the lifting of sanctions and a permanent end to US strikes before it would resume talks, it said.

On Monday, Tehran said the two countries have reached an agreement on a new shipping route in the strait and are now preparing a joint declaration.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the proposed mechanism for control of the strait seeks to protect the interests of both Iran and Oman while allowing commercial shipping to pass through.

“This is the first time that a mechanism is being developed to simultaneously safeguard the sovereign rights of the two littoral states and ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels,” said Baghaei.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped before the US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28. Roughly 130 ships sailed through the strait each day.

Iran closed the strait in early March, allowing only a few ships it deemed “friendly” to pass through the strait until it signed the MoU with the US on June 17. Since then, it has become the key issue holding up talks for a lasting peace plan to end the war on Iran.

The US, meanwhile, has established its own blockade on Iranian ports in and around the strait. Last week, it fired on a Panama-flagged cargo vessel it accused of attempting to reach Iranian ports and which, it said, had failed to follow orders to change course.

The crisis has triggered global energy shortages and the price of oil has soared. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, was about $66 a barrel just before the Middle East conflict began. Over the course of the war, the price has surged past $100 on several occasions, most recently on July 23. In March, the price rose as high as $119.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures rose to $91.22 a barrel on Tuesday, inching close to a three-week high.

What is Oman’s position on the Iran war?

Oman, which is known for its neutrality, has not publicly stated that it intends to join Iran in controlling the Strait of Hormuz. The US and Oman are close partners with a relationship stretching back nearly 200 years.

The two countries have multiple cooperation treaties, including security partnerships, a free trade agreement and a science and technology deal.

During the war, Iran launched multiple strikes on US military assets and energy infrastructure in neighbouring countries, including Oman.

Oman previously acted as a key mediator between Washington and Tehran as they sought a resolution to the war that began on February 28, when the US and Israel attacked Iran.

So, why is Trump threatening Oman now?

A potential Iran-Oman understanding covering the Strait of Hormuz could cut against one of Washington’s core demands: that Iran relinquish control of the strait as a condition of ending the war. Rather than curbing that control, such a deal would lend it greater legitimacy by formalising Iran’s position.

But experts say Trump is also likely angry that the US has seemingly been cut out of the deal relating to the strait.

“In part, a solution mediated without US intervention and which in fact allows Oman and Iran to manage passage through Hormuz, which lies entirely within the two countries’ territorial waters, would show how impotent the United States is and has been,” Laleh Khalili, a professor of Gulf studies at the University of Exeter, told Al Jazeera.

The US and Iran have also strongly disagreed about whether Iran should be allowed to charge fees to shipping companies using the strait. Under international law, tolls for passing through natural waterways such as Hormuz are forbidden, even when they are not technically in international waters. However, fees for services such as insurance, environmental protection and docking can be charged. It has yet to be seen whether this issue will be addressed in an Iran-Oman agreement.

In late July, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Iran should not be allowed to charge tolls on vessels traversing Hormuz. Days earlier, Trump himself pledged there would be no tolls for passage through the strait, unless they are collected by his own country.

On August 14, Trump went a step further, telling his supporters in New York that he had plans to declare the Strait of Hormuz a “territory” of the US. “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, responded to that threat on social media with defiance.

“Trump said that, after Iran’s defeat, he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz as American territory,” Gharibabadi wrote.

“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be taken over by a tweet, nor by an aircraft carrier, nor by issuing a decree, nor by an election speech. Iran is neither afraid of threats nor intimidated by a show of force.”

The Rohingya of Myanmar have faced decades of discrimination and forced displacement, and a case alleging genocide now sits before the International Court of Justice.

This film describes how military regimes rewrote citizenship laws to exclude Rohingya from registers and used identity documents, checkpoints and travel permits to control movement. It also highlights how segregation, incitement and continuing waves of violence normalised their erasure from the community.

Focusing on the 2016-2017 “clearance operations”, the film documents village burnings, mass killings and the flight of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to Bangladesh. Through survivor testimony and interviews with officials and legal experts, Myanmar: The Architecture of Statelessness examines whether these crimes meet the legal threshold for genocide, how Myanmar defends itself against the allegation and what is ultimately at stake when the court delivers its verdict.

In a nondescript black building in downtown L.A.’s Arts District, rich sounds of sax and bass filled the air for hours. Inside, surrounded by the paintings and posters of iconic musicians, albums and films, dozens of people gathered for a night designed to prove a simple point: You can’t “cancel” jazz.

On Thursday night, eight jazz artists and groups performed a pop-up show, including Okay Coleman!, the Don Brown Collective, Joy Guerilla, and Genghis Don, who also organized the event. All of these artists had one thing in common: They were billed to perform on the now-canceled inaugural L.A. Jazz Festival.

The planned 17-day event was supposed to kick off on Aug. 7 and feature dozens of performances spread throughout every City Council district. Organizers hoped the shows would draw 250,000 attendees and inaugurate the city as a home for jazz events on par with New Orleans and Montreal. The festival was to include a final show headlined by Janelle Monáe, John Legend, Charlie Wilson, Parliament Funkadelic and Raphael Saadiq at Dockweiler State Beach.

“When I got booked for it, I was really excited,” Genghis Don said. “It was one of the bigger festivals I’ve done so far in my career.”

Glen Turner of Joy Guerilla performs at the “Can’t Cancel Jazz” event Thursday.

(Brian Feinzimer / For The Times)

Then, the festival was abruptly canceled due to “last-minute public safety and municipal costs.”

But Don was determined for the show to go on. He partnered with Tída Norasingh of JIJI’s Jazz Club to host the “Can’t Cancel Jazz” pop-up show at Slow Jamz Gallery — a musical experience that was curated in less than 72 hours, according to Don.

“It all came together thanks to so many people who were involved in this,” Don said. “I really couldn’t have done any of this without them.”

The crowd, which leaned younger in part because the event allowed attendees 18 and older, trickled in around 7 p.m., and by 9 p.m., the party was in full swing. It was easy to see how audience members connected with the music by the way they cheered, danced and sang along through the night.

The pop-up show struck a balance between creating an accessible, music-forward environment for fans and providing support for the musicians who had been affected by the cancellation. The event’s entry fee was $20, while the nonalcoholic bar accepted additional donations. Some artists also had merch available for sale on site.

While “Can’t Cancel Jazz” may have been a response to the L.A. Jazz Festival being called off, it wasn’t aiming to replace it. Instead, the pop-up offered something more intimate. At times, the music overtook the gallery, completely captivating the attention of the room. At other moments, conversation and connection were happening right outside on the balcony between attendees, some of whom were meeting each other for the first time.

The result was something distinctly authentic with an underground quality that would have been hard to replicate at a sprawling, weeks-long festival.

“This was more so a test of L.A.’s community,” Don said. “They showed out, people came, the artists came together, and you know that’s the true definition of community.”

Russia summons Japan’s ambassador to Moscow over Prime Minister Sanae ⁠Takaichi’s ‘anti-Russian’ remarks.

Russia has strongly protested to Japan’s ambassador ‌to Moscow the “anti-Russian” comments made by ⁠Prime Minister Sanae ⁠Takaichi after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited one of the disputed Kuril Islands for the first time last week.

Putin’s controversial visit to the territories last Thursday prompted Japan to summon Russia’s ambassador in protest.

Japan’s prime minister called Putin’s visit to the disputed islands “grave” and “absolutely unacceptable”. “The Northern Territories are inherently part of Japan’s territory, both historically and under international law,” she said.

“This visit has further hardened anti-Russian sentiment within Japan and has made the restoration of relations over the medium- to long- term more difficult,” Takaichi added.

Japan’s ambassador to Moscow left the meeting at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday after 25 minutes without making any comment.

Disputed islands

Ties between Russia and Japan have long been dogged by the Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories.

The islands were seized in 1945 by the Soviet Union, which went on to expel the Japanese population.

The dispute over the southern Kuril Islands – Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands – prevented Russia and Japan from signing a post-World War II peace treaty.

Deteriorating relations

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Takaichi’s comments on Putin’s visit had “crossed the line of decency” and criticised Tokyo’s “militaristic line”.

Relations between Moscow and Tokyo have worsened since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Japan has joined other G7 countries in sanctioning Russia and giving financial and non-lethal defence aid to Ukraine, which recognises Japan’s claim over the disputed islands.

Japan indirectly supports Ukraine’s air defence by exporting domestically produced Patriot interceptor missiles to the United States, helping replenish US stockpiles that have been reduced by military aid to Kyiv.

Analysts said Putin’s visit to the Kurils could be a warning to Japan not to deepen its support for Ukraine by supplying Patriot missiles directly to Kyiv or working closer with NATO.

In recent years, Japan has relaxed pacifist policies by lifting a ban on lethal weapons exports. But it remains unable to supply lethal military equipment directly to a country at war, including Ukraine.

The U.S. Army is on track to stand up a new battalion equipped with the Patriot surface-to-air missile system on Guam in October. The unit will also have Enduring Shield, a lower-tier air defense system that currently uses the AIM-9X Sidewinder as its interceptor. This is a major step forward in the U.S. military’s years-long effort to bolster air and missile defenses on the extremely strategic U.S. island territory in the Western Pacific. It is also a significant development for the Army’s Patriot force, which continues to be worryingly overstretched due to heavy operational demands, something TWZ calls attention to regularly.

The new Army air defense unit on Guam will be designated 3rd Battalion, 43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (3-43rd ADA). It will be under the purview, at least in part, of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (94th AAMDC) headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.

“So, over the past couple of years, we’ve been working to increase the level of protection on Guam. In the past, we’ve had the THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] battery there, and of course, Aegis BMD [ballistic missile defense capable] ship[s],” Army Col. Matt Dalton, Deputy Commander of the 94th AAMDC, said last week. “We’ve been working the past few years to increase that to provide a 360-degree defense, cruise missile defense, of the homeland [on Guam].”

Dalton was speaking during a panel discussion at the annual Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, at which TWZ was in attendance. An Army unit, known as Task Force Talon, has operated the THAAD battery on Guam since 2013.

“What does that entail? Construction, planning, barracks, housing, defense design, coordinating with the local authorities in the joint community, the governor’s office, FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] – so many, many things over the last couple of years,” he continued. “I think right now what we’re seeing is we’re starting to see the fruits of all that labor. This summer, the battalion commander arrived. This fall, 3-43rd ADA will stand up in October. Currently, there are about 120 or so soldiers specifically for that battalion on [the] island, on top of the the soldiers already there for the THAAD battery. And then over the next few months, we’re going to see the delivery of the weapon system.”

“The battalion will have both the Patriot Missile System and IFPC, or mobile ground-based launchers, which they will integrate to provide 360-degree, layered air and missile defense for Guam as part of our expansion to the defensive architecture to better protect everyone living there,” an Army spokesperson told TWZ when asked for more information about the “weapon system” Col. Dalton had referred to.

IFPC stands for Indirect Fire Protection Capability. IFPC dates back to the early 2000s, but the Army transitioned to the second phase, or Increment 2, of the program in 2021. That, in turn, led to the acquisition of the Enduring Shield system, which is primarily intended to help defend against cruise missiles and drones. We will come back to this in a moment.

Whether the Patriot systems headed for 3-43rd ADA are new-production assets or available with the Army’s existing inventory as part of a reorganization of other units is unclear, and TWZ has reached back out for more details. At the time of writing, the service is known to have 15 operational Patriot battalions, as well as two more that are non-deployable dedicated training units. A typical one of these battalions consists of a headquarters element and between three and five firing batteries. A single Patriot firing battery can have up to eight trailer-mounted launchers, along with a fire control radar and other supporting equipment.

“We know we have to grow that [Patriot force]. We have plans on the table to build a 16th, 17th, and 18th [battalions],” now-retired Army Gen. James Mingus, then the service’s Vice Chief of Staff, said last year. “And that’s not to include the Patriot battalion that we’re going to put in Guam as part of the Guam defense system.”

At that time, the Army general also talked about the possibility of future composite battalions with Patriot and IFPC/Enduring Shield systems. The Army also has plans to establish nine dedicated IFPC/Enduring Shield battalions.

“The IFPC battalions that are coming online will help offset that [demand for Patriot] as well, even though it’s not quite the same capability,” Mingus said. “In some environments, that [IFPC] actually is more appropriate to apply than a full-up Patriot battalion.”

Recent fighting with Iran has underscored the challenges posed by barrages that include a high-low threat mix. Furthermore, lower-tier IFPC/Enduring Shield systems can also provide critical defense for high-tier air defense assets like Patriot and THAAD, which are themselves high-priority targets for adversaries.

How many IFPC/Enduring Shield systems will be assigned to 3-43rd ADA is also unclear. The Army has said in the past that a typical IFPC/Enduring Shield platoon, multiple of which would be contained with a single battery, consists of four launchers linked to at least one AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel-series radar via the Army’s Integrated Battle Command System (IBCS) network. In their current form, each palletized launcher can be loaded with up to 18 AIM-9Xs. The Army is working to fielding at least one new interceptor for IFPC/Enduring Shield, primarily to help improve the system’s ability to defeat ever-more capable supersonic cruise missiles, though it would also boost its capabilities more broadly.

As an aside, the Army moved to acquire IFPC/Enduring Shield after deciding not to adopt a service-specific version of the Israeli Iron Dome system. An Iron Dome system was briefly deployed to Guam in 2021 as a test.

3-43rd ADA is still just one part of the larger plan to bolster air and missile defenses on the island as part of what is currently called the Guam Defense System (GDS). A prototype of a ground-based launch system based on the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) used on various U.S. and foreign warships has already been emplaced on the island. There have been plans, at least in the past, for a Guam-specific version of the Aegis Ashore system that use Mk 41-based launchers to fire Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) interceptors.

Guam is also getting an entirely new sensor architecture as part of the GDS. Work to date has included the establishment of a radar site with a prototype AN/TPY-6, a design derived from Lockheed Martin’s AN/SPY-7 Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) in Alaska. Questions about the future of the AN/TPY-6 have been raised in the past, but it was still in place as of July.

The Army has also previously deployed a Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) to Guam. LTAMDS can be used as a standalone sensor, but also intended as next-generation radar for Patriot, and it could easily be tied with 3-43rd’s other assets when the battalion stands up later this year.

“So instead of what we have today, with our Q-series [AN/MPQ-65] radars that have about a 270-view look, which grows – or, kind of negates how much coverage that you can have, the new LTAMDS is 360 [degrees],” Gen. Mingus said last year. “It also goes from about 85 kilometers [close to 53 miles] up and 85 kilometers out to 300 by 300 [kilometers; around 186 miles]. So [it] greatly expands the range, the altitude, and it’s a 360.”

In works since 2021, the overall GDS plan reflects the extremely strategic position Guam occupies in the Western Pacific and the growing threats the island faces. As we previously wrote:

“Since 2021, expanding air and missile defenses on Guam has been a centerpiece of larger U.S. military efforts to reorient itself to preparing for future large-scale conflicts, especially a potential high-end fight with China in the Pacific. Guam is a vital hub for U.S. air and naval operations in the Western Pacific. It is also an important location for staging ground forces for onward movement across the region. In turn, being able to adequately protect key facilities on the island, including Andersen Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam, and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, especially from a growing array of Chinese ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic threats, is seen as critical. Various tiers of drones are also a real and still evolving threat. Guam could be a target for other adversaries, as well. Concerns about increasingly longer-range North Korean ballistic missiles prompted Task Force Talon’s initial deployment more than a decade ago.”

As mentioned, the Army establishing a new Patriot battalion, even one also equipped in part with IFPC/Enduring Shield is a significant development in of itself. The service’s existing Patriot force has been heavily in demand, and under significant strain as a result, for years, most recently due to the ongoing conflict with Iran. TWZ routinely highlights the worryingly inadequate capacity of the Army’s existing Patriot battalions to meet operational requirements now, let alone should a high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific, break out.

The PATRIOT Missile in Action

At the same time, work to establish the 3-43rd ADA highlights continued challenges the Army faces in bolstering its Patriot force, as well as its air and missile defense capabilities and capacity more broadly. As noted, it will have taken more than a year just to stand up this composite battalion on Guam, which will also be dedicated to defense of the island. The Army’s timeline for establishing the three other planned Patriot battalions is unclear. Prime contractor Raytheon is itself under immense strain to meet existing global orders for new Patriot systems due to competing priorities, and not just ones emanating from the United States. Last year, Switzerland saw its orders for new Patriot batteries deferred to meet urgent requests from Ukraine, and authorities in Geneva subsequently raised the prospect of canceling the deal altogether as a result of the delays.

Patriot systems also need stocks of interceptors to go along with them, and this has also become its own area of serious concern, especially in light of heavy expenditures in fighting with Iran. Transfers to Ukraine have also had significant impacts on U.S. stockpiles, as well as those of other countries. Questions have been raised about the ability of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to meet still-growing demand for PAC-2 and PAC-3-series Patriot interceptors, respectively. These are long-lead items that take years to deliver. Both companies have been working to bolster their production capacity, but it will take time for this to translate into increased deliveries. Lockheed Martin is now also developing a lower-cost PAC-3 variant, called the Adapted Capability Effector (ACE), which it sees as another way to help boost total production. Just this year, the Army put in its first order for a new-production batch of older PAC-2 interceptors in more than three decades, further underscoring the current level of demand.

The establishment of 3-43rd ADA on Guam in October will still be an important development. At the same time, there is still much work to be done before the Army meets its larger goals for a sorely needed expansion of its Patriot force.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

THE daughter of one of Hollywood’s most famous faces has posted a rap video to TikTok.

The aspiring actress took to TikTok and lip synced in pyjamas to a hit song with lyrics about “strippers’ t**s” – but can you guess who she is?

Sunny Sandler is the youngest daughter of comedian Adam Sandler and his wife of 23 years, Jackie Sandler.

Sunny posed with her brunette hair down around her shoulder in the striped pyjamas as she mimed along to the song Prada by cassö featuring Raye and D-Block Europe.

She danced and flipped her hair in the TikTok as she mouthed the lyrics of Raye’s verse in the chart topper.

The lyrics included: “I feel like I’m in Prince’s house/Purple paint all on the walls/Sittin’ down on this fancy couch.

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“And I can’t see straight, I’m a state/Twenty-two, I’m in Paris, baby/Got strippers t**s in my face/Pull up in a Bentley, I want Christian [Dior], I want Fendi.”

Sunny, her older sister Sadie, 20, and their mum have appeared in all of Adam’s projects in some form or another.

Sunny’s first role was in her dad’s movie Grown Ups in 2010 where she played the daughter of one of Adam’s friends in the movie.

Most recently she played Vienna Gilmore in the Netflix sequel Happy Gilmore 2.

Vienna was the daughter of her dad’s iconic character, Happy Gilmore, the failed hockey player turned professional golfer.

In a 2020 interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, Adam joked: “They make it look like I’m forcing them to do it

“Drew, you would think the kids would be very excited to be in a movie.

“I hear sometimes in the house, ‘I wanna be in a movie’ and I say, ‘You are, you were in this, this, and this.’

“Then they go, ‘Not yours.’ I go, ‘Oh, Daddy’s not good enough!’

“They wanna do their own thing one day. Meanwhile, they were asking me the whole damn year, ‘Can I be in your next movie, Daddy?’”

Aug. 18 (UPI) — Two counties and two cities are suing the Trump administration over conditioning national security funding on local governments adopting sweeping election procedures, calling the requirement illegal federal overreach.

The Brennan Center for Justice filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn., Harris and El Paso counties, Texas, and Columbus, asking it to declare the decision to impose election administration conditions on grants unlawful and enjoin its enforcement.

“This is the kind of federal overreach we’ve come to expect from the Trump administration,” Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin said in a statement emailed to UPI. “To threaten law enforcement and public safety funding our agencies rely on, to withhold dollars that protect our communities for a partisan power grab is not only improper, it’s dangerous.”

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has taken a series of actions he says are to improve election integrity and security but that Democrats and civil rights advocates have described as efforts to interfere with and undermine U.S. elections.

In June, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under the Department of Homeland Security, updated compliance requirements for Homeland Security Grant Program funds, which are to help local governments prevent terrorism. Conditions added include creating a plan for transitioning to hand-marked paper ballots, conducting a 5% post-election manual audit and citizenship verification for all poll workers and registered voters, among others.

FEMA said it will withhold 20% of the recipient’s total HSGP funding until receipt of proof of compliance with the new requirements.

The jurisdictions suing the administration described the withholding of funds as FEMA holding their money “hostage” and its new election-related conditions “arbitrary and capricious.”

“Never before has FEMA purported to regulate how states and counties run elections,” they said in the lawsuit, stating that such a change would require congressional authorization, which FEMA does not have.

“The power to administer elections belongs to the states, subject only to conditions imposed by Congress — not the president, not the secretary of Homeland Security and not FEMA.”

The plaintiffs state that FEMA has not provided a “reasoned explanation” for the change in funding administration while ignoring the legal, financial and logistical “chaos” the new conditions will cause with midterm elections less than two months away and the potential harm withholding anti-terrorism funds could cause.

“Holding cities hostage by threatening anti-terrorism funding if they don’t go along with the president’s absurd election manipulation is as dangerous as it is illegal,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a statement.

“We’re fighting back to protect public safety and election integrity. We will not be bullied by this president and his administration.”

New Delhi, India — On August 13, Abdul Hafeez returned to the primary school he once went to, in Karisunda, a village in Bankura district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

The 26-year-old was visiting his alma mater as part of a campaign by the Cockroach Janata Party, a popular Indian pressure group, to audit conditions of the country’s under-funded, often dilapidated government-run schools.

The CJP had just succeeded in forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, in July, after a 37-day sit-in in the national capital that prompted antigovernment Gen Z protests across the country.

But in Bankura, things would turn deadly. Hours after Hafeez’s visit to his school, he alleged that local workers of Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) arrived at his home and assaulted him and his father, Mohammad Mafik. Two days later, Hafeez’s 51-year-old father died from his injuries.

On Sunday, Suvendu Adhikari, the chief minister of BJP-ruled West Bengal, said the attackers were “criminals with no BJP connection” and assured action.

But a day after burying his father, Hafeez told Al Jazeera that he stands firm in calling for accountability and reforms in government-run schools. “We will fight for justice for my father, but these attacks will not stop us from demanding better education,” he said.

That demand marks a new line in the sand for the CJP. Fresh from successfully forcing Modi and his government onto the defensive — the Indian PM has only rarely sacked ministers even in the face of credible accusations of wrongdoing or public pressure — the group has now announced its next battleground: India’s public-funded schools.

CJP leaders have asked their supporters, who thronged the protests in New Delhi from different parts of the country, to visit their nearby schools and audit their conditions.

They are working around a basic four-point checklist for what the CJP is calling its Fix the Schools campaign: drinking water and functional toilets; electricity and usable classrooms; boundary walls and campus safety; and midday meals and teacher attendance.

And the murder of Hafeez’s father has raised the already high stakes in a battle between the well-oiled machinery of Modi’s BJP and the fledgling, thin-on-organisation CJP.

“Abdul went to inspect the [government] school in Bengal where he once studied,” said Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the CJP. “It makes my blood boil that people are being murdered simply for demanding better schools.”

‘A disruptive change’

Ashutosh Ranka, a co-convenor of the Cockroach group, appeared emotional after meeting Hafeez’s family on Monday. He told reporters that the group proposed to press the government for compensation; however, Hafeez requested that a school be named after his father.

In Rajasthan, Ranka’s home state in western India, the group has faced other challenges.

Ranka joined a sit-in with primary school students in Alwar district on August 14 to demand additional rooms, clean toilets and drinking water. Local publications reported that the officials accepted the demands.

On Sunday, the Rajasthan government, also led by Modi’s BJP, imposed restrictions on so-called outsiders entering government schools and on taking photos and videos, citing students’ privacy.

The government notice, which ordered the school management to pursue criminal action against such surveys, came after Ranka had announced visits by CJP volunteers across the state.

Samina Bano, an education-policy expert who has advised several Indian states on reforms, told Al Jazeera that “it is essentially the system itself that is not working anymore for the people”.

In the last 10 years, Bano said, she had found “drunk teachers on duty during spot checks”, fake appointments in rural areas that many teachers do not want to go to, and other systemic failures that she insisted are common in the Indian public school system.

“Education in government-run schools a sorry state of affairs.
 It requires a disruptive change,” Bano said.

“The real problem is the quality of teaching, learning outcomes and the food,” Bano added, crediting the Cockroach pressure group for bringing the demands for reform into mainstream politics.

“They are bringing it into the discourse, but once people start demanding, there needs to be actual institution building, and that’s different work altogether,” Bano said. “There has to be an appetite to reimagine public education in India.”

‘Playing to strength’

After Gen Z protesters returned from the streets in New Delhi, the internet was instead flooded with videos of school-going children asking for better facilities across several states. They were blocking roads, circling local administration offices and fighting with bureaucrats.

The Cockroach party tapped into the momentum and announced its next phase in a smart mobilisation strategy, said Asim Ali, a political analyst in New Delhi.

“It plays to their strength of leveraging social media. Without many volunteers [like a traditional political party], they can outsource the grassroots work to followers on social media itself,” he said.

“By leveraging the power of social media, which is now felt in the remotest of corners in India, the Cockroach party has dramatically driven down organisational resource costs of a movement,” Ali added.

But Ali cautioned that this approach of relying on volunteers without political or organisational skills, protest experience or institutional support also exposes them to violence, as happened with the Hafeez family in West Bengal.

Yet the blood spilled in the eastern state hasn’t dimmed the drive from the CJP to demand accountability from authorities.

On Tuesday, Ranka announced on X that multiple venues in West Bengal’s capital Kolkata had cancelled or refused permission to the CJP to hold meet-ups with students.

“This only reinforces the fact that the BJP is scared from the cockroaches,” he wrote. “Cockroaches of Bengal will continue to visit govt schools and push the Bengal govt to get them fixed.

“The more you stop us, the bigger we become.”

We’d have to say the most challenging thing about us writing “The Comeback” was coming back from the dead after the show was canceled following its first season way back in 2005. Talk about a hiatus.

There are always nerves when you return to do the next season of a series, but when the hiatus lasts 10 years between Season 1 and Season 2, and then another 10 years between the second and this third, final season — that’s a whole other level of “When we last left Valerie …”

But, gratefully, when we get together to write Valerie Cherish and her world again, it’s somehow more exciting than daunting. The nerves fade and the fun starts. The fun along with — of course — the doubts, the surprises, the deadlines, the page count. The comedy and the tragedy (see page count again). We improvise dialogue so much in the writing room that our notes tend to reach into hundreds and hundreds of pages — per episode. That’s a joke … kind of. And on top of all that, this season and this script that we’ve been nominated for writing had a particular challenge.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Between the second and third seasons, one of our most beloved cast members, Robert Michael Morris, died. Robert played the beloved, significant, audience-favorite character Mickey, Valerie’s hairdresser. At first, we couldn’t imagine doing a season without this important person and character … but when we decided to go forward with this season’s story, which deals with the TV industry’s fear of an AI takeover, we knew we had to find a way to deal with Mickey’s absence. We decided that since Robert Michael’s death happened during that second 10-year hiatus, we had to find a way to incorporate that history into the Valerie and Mickey storyline. And because it had never been dealt with by the show on camera, we decided that maybe Valerie hadn’t fully dealt with it as well. That way, the viewers wouldn’t feel like they missed a significant turn in Valerie’s journey. We decided if we could create a story where Valerie hadn’t really grieved Mickey’s passing and had to face it in the episode, then she and (hopefully) the viewers could share the sadness and the love together. And together, they could find a way to accept and release him with respect for the actor and the character and with a bit of triumph for all he meant to Valerie and to all of us on our series.

So, we created a character named Tommy Tomlin — another hairdresser and longtime friend of Mickey’s who Valerie hires to step in and take Mickey’s place and be the hairdresser on her new AI-written sitcom. Well, Tommy can do her hair but, by design, can never replace Mickey, and that conflict between Valerie and Tommy underlines her loss and her denial of Mickey’s passing. Tommy’s presence helps push Valerie to acknowledge Mickey’s absence and moves her to gently face it, finally scatter his ashes and let him go.

It was an emotional story to write and even more emotional to film. Lisa was standing on top of a Warner Bros. soundstage ready to open the box of prop ashes, to allow them to float over “Old Hollywood,” a lure that Mickey loved. But we were filming this scene at sunset, and what comes with the light at that picturesque time of day in Burbank is a strong wind from the surrounding mountains that gets trapped in an impromptu kind of wind tunnel between the soundstages. If Lisa opened the box at the wrong moment, the ashes would fly right back into her face — and in this moment, we were not going for comedy.

I was directing from down on the ground, and I looked up to the heavens and said to Robert Michael Morris, “This is your big moment — please quiet the wind so it can be beautiful and touching and an appropriate goodbye to you and your character.” And — I swear — the wind died down. I called “Action!” and on top of the soundstage, Lisa said her goodbye as Valerie, opened the box and the ashes lifted out, almost magically, and floated out and away into the sunset over the Warner Bros. Studio back lot — just as we imagined in the writing room all those months earlier.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — A strike by Russian forces on a rural community in Ukraine‘s northeastern Kharkiv province on Tuesday morning killed at least 10 people and injured eight others, authorities said.

Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in a post online that a missile hit a residential area of the small town of Pechenihy, 30 miles southeast of Kharkiv.

“This morning, the Russians brutally struck a crowded intersection in Pechenihy, where the post office and shops are located, and around where there are only residential buildings.

“Many people are injured, they are being provided with all necessary medical assistance. Rescuers have already extinguished the fire, all emergency and operational services continue to work at the scene. All the circumstances of this tragedy are being clarified,” wrote Syniehubov.

Syniehubov said 10 private houses, a cafe, a post office, a shop and at least seven cars were also damaged in the attack.

Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to send swarms of attack drones into Russia overnight for a third straight day, hitting and damaging a warehouse outside of Moscow belonging to Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries and setting ablaze an aluminum plant in Filimonovo, 40 miles northwest of Moscow.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said 620 Ukrainian drones approached Moscow and the Moscow Region between Monday evening and 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday, of which 180 were downed by air defenses, causing some indirect damage on the ground.

“Emergency services are working at the sites where debris fell,” said Sobyanin.

The state-run TASS news agency said that by its calculations the attack was the largest in two year, eclipsing an attack overnight Saturday that saw 600 drones bear down on the Russian capital, of which 201 were destroyed in the air.

Supreme Court grants jailed ex-PM Imran Khan transfer to hospital for nearly a month after concerns were raised over his blood pressure.

Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of Imran Khan, former prime minister and founder of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, from Rawalpindi’s Adiala prison to Islamabad’s Shifa International Hospital within two days, accepting a demand his party had been making for months.

Uzair Bhandari, one of Khan’s lawyers, told Al Jazeera the three-member bench also ordered a medical board be formed to oversee Khan’s treatment, including the ex-prime minister’s sister, Dr Uzma Khan, and his personal physician, Dr Faisal Sultan.

“The court also directed that Khan’s family be allowed to meet him at the hospital and that he be permitted to speak with his sons, who live abroad,” Bhandari said.

The next hearing has been fixed for September 16, and Khan should remain hospitalised until at least then as per the order, according to the lawyer. This will be the longest period that Khan will be physically outside jail premises since he was imprisoned in August 2023, convicted in several corruption-related cases that he and his party insist are politically motivated.

The order followed a report Adiala jail’s superintendent submitted to the court on Monday, detailing a cardiac board’s August 10 review of Khan, 73, which recorded fluctuating blood pressure and anxiety linked to restricted contact with his family.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the court pressed Pakistan’s advocate general over gaps in the report, saying Khan’s “pulse and heart condition were not normal” and that his vital organs “had started being affected”.

Courts had twice declined similar transfer requests since February, including an Islamabad High Court ruling that ordered a medical board’s assessment instead.

Zulfi Bukhari, a senior PTI leader, told Al Jazeera the ruling reinforced the party’s longstanding position that Khan needed independent, specialised treatment outside Adiala jail.

“Medical care provided within the prison system is no substitute for a thorough evaluation by independent specialists of his choosing,” he said, adding that PTI had consistently called for Khan’s transfer to Shifa International and access to his own doctors.

Government officials have insisted any transfer required judicial authorisation rather than executive discretion.

Rana Sanaullah, adviser to the prime minister, told the Senate on Monday that Khan was receiving “the best available medical treatment” and that his condition did not support PTI’s concerns.

The order lands amid a wider standoff over access to Khan, which PTI has increasingly framed as the precondition for reviving talks with the government. The government, for its part, has renewed efforts to engage in dialogue but to no avail as yet, while PTI leadership has announced a countrywide protest on September 27.

In the UK around 14 million people are still paying ‘too much’

Personal finance expert Martin Lewis has told anyone with an iPhone or Android mobile to text a four-letter word. In a new video on Youtube, the ITV and BBC star said millions of people continue paying sky-high prices on contracts which are no longer binding.

He said that in the UK around 14 million people are still paying too much – often for deals which got them a new handset – and can save hundreds. People were told to check their contract status by texting ‘INFO’ for free to 85075.

Mr Lewis explained: “There’s a way to find out if you can save on your mobile bill just by typing five digits into your phone. All you got to do is text the word info info to 85075. This is a service the regulator mandates mobile phone networks to offer. It’s totally free. They then have to reply with whether you have any early termination or early cancellation charges.

“If it says you don’t, so 0 early termination, it means one of 14 million people who are out of contract and you’re therefore free to ditch and switch and the vast majority of people who are out of contract are seriously overpaying on their phones. So what do you then do? Well, just go on to a comparison site like money-saving experts cheap simfinder and see what’s available.

“Couple of quick notes. If you’re on three smarty or ID mobile, then when you do the text, it will reply back asking you for your date of birth, which is just an ID check. And I should Also note if you’re on a multiple phone contract like couple of different handsets on the contact on the contract it can’t do this. So then simple rule of thumb if you’ve been on the same deal for more than two years you’re almost certainly out of contract. Do check it out.”

If the “Early Termination” or “Cancellation Charge” reads £0, meaning your contract has run out, the MoneySavingExpert founder said, “go to a cheap SIM comparison site”, where a selection of suppliers will offer the same SIM allowance for a fraction of the price.

“If you’re on a multiple-phone contract, you won’t be able to do this”, he added.

He has previously explained how the cost of getting a new SIM has plunged – meaning people could get the full service on their handset for a lot less. He said previously: “Prices have been going up and up. At the same time the cost of new customer SIM deals have been plummeting. For 50gb two years ago you’d have been paying £9. Now you can get it as cheap as about £3 a month.”

Pointing to a diagram on screen Mr Lewis said: “Look at that dispersal – you’ve got existing customers going up and up and up and new customers going down and down and down.”

Mr Lewis went on to explain his three steps for mobile customers to cut costs. He said: “14 million people are out of contract on their mobile phone bill which means you are free to switch.”

He said there is an ‘easy’ way to find out if you are one of those out of contract. Mr Lewis explained: “You text ‘info’ for free to 85075 to check.” He added that people on Three would need to then enter their date of birth. He said that those in contract would still have to pay a termination fee, but otherwise people are free to switch: “You’re a free agent – you can go and get the cheapest deals, you can cut your costs.”

He added that once people decide to switch if they want to keep their number, all they have to do is text PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) to 85075 and give that code to your new provider which will than be able to take the number. According to the MSE founder, the best deals aren’t found by going directly to the big operators – instead he said that if someone is out of contract they should go to comparison sites.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — Russia is warning Britain that there will be “consequences” following reports that Ukraine has struck within Russian territory with drones provided by London and made by British companies.

In a statement Tuesday, the Embassy of Russia to the United Kingdom accused London of escalating Russia’s war against Ukraine by providing the weaponry, while chastising it for “hypocritically professing a desire for peace.”

“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the embassy said.

“The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support of Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”

Britain has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine’s defense against Russia, which invaded its eastern neighbor in February 2022, launching the four-year war.

According to a July factsheet from the British government, London has committed more than $33 billion to Ukraine, including more than $21.6 billion in military assistance.

Britain has for years been focused on supplying Ukraine with drones, which have proved effective in Kyiv’s defense against the Kremlin. In April, its Ministry of Defense announced it would deliver at least 120,000 drones to Ukraine by the end of this year, a number it increased to 150,000 in June.

The threat from the embassy follows reports stating drones built by British companies were being used by Ukraine to hit targets within the borders of Russia, resulting in more than $47.3 billion in damages.

In response to the embassy, Britain’s Ministry of Defense told BBC News in a statement that London stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Kyiv.

“Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies,” the ministry spokesperson said.

This chilling true crime doc investigates a high school principal who hypnotised three students before their deaths.

ITV’s next true crime doc delves into the deaths of three students who were hypnotised by a teacher.

Look Into My Eyes was first released in the US three years ago and now it’s finally made its way to the UK, landing on ITVX today, Tuesday, August 18.

The True Crime Story doc explores the story of former North Port High School principal Dr George Kenney in Sarasota, Florida who was hypnotising his students.

He reportedly “put them under” to help teens with their athletic performances and anxiety ahead of taking exams and is believed to have hypnotised around 70 students in a five-year span.

But in 2011, Kenney was under investigation as he admitted to hypnotising three students who all tragically died within months of each other.

Star quarterback Marcus Freeman, 16, died in a car accident, and the following two months, fellow teens Brittany Palumbo and Wesley McKinley also died by suicide.

The four-part special takes a look at Kenney’s interventions and their role in the students’ lives. The official description further explains that it “investigates events leading up to these untimely deaths and the tragic aftermath as victims’ families, eyewitnesses, experts, and people involved attempt to unpack what really happened.

In the trailer for Look Into My Eyes, a parent of one of the deceased teens is heard tearily saying: “This man has ruined my life”, while another man stated: “This man just wanted to help.”

Kenney pleaded no contest to two misdemeanour counts of the unlawful practice of hypnosis without a license. He was sentenced to one year of probation, 50 hours of community service and resigned from his position as principal at North Port High School, according to the docu-series.

NBC reported that Freeman, McKinley and Palumbo’s parents sues Sarasota County school board for the wrongful deaths of the teens, stating that the school should have stopped Kenney from performing hypnosis.

In October 2015, each of the families reached a maximum sum of $200,000.

Look Into My Eyes is available to watch on ITVX.

The attacks injured at least three people, including a girl, and damaged a Wildberries warehouse, Russian officials say.

Russian officials have reported more than 620 overnight drones targeting Moscow, in what appears to be one of Ukraine’s largest attacks on the Russian capital in years.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian defences shot down 180 drones over the capital region between Monday evening and ‌5am (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday. He said 17 more drones were shot down en route to the capital later.

Russia’s state-run news agency TASS described the barrage as the largest drone attack on Moscow in the past two years.

The drone attack wounded three people, including a 10-year-old girl, Moscow region’s Governor Andrey Vorobyov said on Telegram. He said the “most serious consequences” were reported in the Pavlovsky Posad district, where a house burned down. Several more homes and a guesthouse were damaged in Bogorodsky district, he added.

A warehouse east of Moscow belonging to e-commerce giant Wildberries was damaged in Tuesday’s drone assault. In a statement, the company said its logistics complex sustained “minor damage” after “debris hit the wall of the building”.

Ukraine has struck multiple Wildberries warehouses in recent weeks, saying the company supplies components for Russian drones.

Five injured in Ukraine’s Kharkiv

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force reported shooting down or suppressing 111 of 147 “enemy” drone attacks overnight.

Kharkiv’s regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said five people, including a nine-year-old boy, were injured in an overnight Russian attack on the city of Izyum.

Russian drones also sparked fires and damaged buildings in Kyiv region’s Brovary city, including an office building and warehouses, said Mayor Ihor Sapozhko.

With front-line fighting at a near standstill and talks frozen, Ukraine and Russia have significantly stepped up long-distance attacks, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest levels since the war’s first months in 2022.

In July alone, 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine, the highest monthly toll since May 2022, according to a United Nations tally.

Russian authorities reported 79 civilians killed in Ukrainian attacks in July, up from the previous month.

WLADIMIR Klitschko has broken his silence following the sudden death of his ex-fiancé Hayden Panettiere.

The beloved US actress, who was nominated for two Golden Globes, died on Sunday, her heartbroken family confirmed.

In a moving tribute posted on Instagram, Wladimir, 50, said: “Our family is going through a time of profound shock and grief.

“The announcement of Hayden’s tragic death saddens me deeply.”

The retired Ukrainian boxing champion had a daughter with Hayden during their nine year on-and-off relationship.

HAYDEN TRAGEDY

Hayden Panettiere, 36, died after suspected overdose, 911 audio suggests

LAST WORDS

‘A lot more life left to live’: Hayden Panettiere’s tragic final interview

He added: “She left this world far too soon. Hayden was, although no longer my partner, an important part of my life and the mother of our daughter, Kaya.

“To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect and make sure she remembers the person she was.

“I extend my deepest condolences to Hayden’s parents, her friends, and her fans, who are also grieving today.

“Young and talented people like Hayden should not leave this world so soon.”

Wladimir met Hayden in 2009 and the pair – who had a 14-year age gap – were later engaged in 2013 but split up in before tying the knot.

Hayden had publicly spoken about her difficulties with mental health and addiction, but had been sober since 2020 after spending weeks in rehab.

A serious bout of postpartum depression led to her giving up custody of her daughter, Kaya, 11, in 2018.

In an interview with parenting outlet Mome published in July, Hayden described the heart-breaking decision.

She said: “It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, nor was it a decision I even wanted to make.

“I was going through a really challenging time in my life… I knew I needed to be able to put her first so that I could get the help I needed and be the mum she needed me to be.”

The mother-of-one, who would have turned 37 on Friday, had complained of back pain in the months before her death, sources told TMZ.

Confirming the tragic news, her dad Skip Panettiere said: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden.

“She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her on screen.”

Police were reportedly responding to an “incident” involving the actress when they found her, with investigations still ongoing.

Hayden had recently been dating Brian Hickerson in an on-again, off-again relationship.

US media reported both Hayden and Brian, had flown out of Los Angeles on Saturday.

The pair were together from 2018 to 2020 when Hickerson was arrested, convicted and jailed for domestic violence against the actress.

He served only one day of a 45-day jail term and the couple reconnected in 2021.

At the time, Brian said: “We have a long history together, and the first step in my recovery as an abuser is making amends.”

Hayden, born in New York, first hit the screens as an 11-month-old child when her mum took her to star in several TV commercials.

Her first acting gig came when she was four-years-old on the American soap opera One Life to Live.

The diminutive actress would stay in the TV and film industry for her entire life.

Her film debut came at the age of nine, as the narrator and voice of Princess Dot in the 1998 animated Pixar flick A Bug’s Life.

She was nominated for a Young Artist Award and a Grammy Award on the back of the film’s box office success, which made her the fifth-youngest Grammy nominee ever.

Away from Hollywood, Hayden is best known for her leading roles on TV.

She starred in 73 episodes of Emmy-award winning Heroes between 2006 to 2010 as cheerleader Claire Bennet.

Hayden later earned two Golden Globe nominations as Juliette Barnes on Nashville where she featured in 128 episodes from 2012 to 2018.

Hayden also lent her voice to video games including hit series Until Dawn.

Her sudden death comes months after her candid autobiography, This Is Me: A Reckoning, detailed her experiences with postpartum depression, drug addiction and recovery.

In her final interview while promoting the book, Hayden declared she had “a lot more life to live”.

The tell-all book had recently become a New York Times bestseller.

SEOUL, Aug. 18 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has responded to his overtures for talks, one day after he ordered a sweeping reduction in U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, citing his “very good relationship” with Kim.

Trump made the remarks during a press availability in the Oval Office, fueling speculation that his directive could be aimed at reopening dialogue with Pyongyang.

Asked why Kim had not responded to his requests for a conversation, Trump replied, “How do you know he hasn’t responded?”

“He has,” Trump said when pressed. He declined to elaborate, saying only that developments were “very positive.”

Trump went on to tout his personal relationship with Kim, saying the North Korean leader had “always treated me with great respect.”

“I understand him. He understands me,” Trump said. “He didn’t like Biden. He didn’t like Obama. He didn’t like anybody, but I get along with him very well.”

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said the allies’ Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, which began Monday, are expensive and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea. He said Pyongyang “has been unthreatening and respectful” while he has been in the White House.

Trump also noted that South Korea declined his request to help with the denuclearization of Iran.

“Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” he wrote.

In a text message to reporters on Monday, an official with Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills had started as scheduled.

“The UFS exercise is proceeding as planned,” the official said.

Later in the day, the presidential Blue House released a statement saying that Seoul was “paying close attention” to Trump’s comments, adding that it hoped friendly relations between Washington and Pyongyang would lead to meaningful peace talks between the two countries.

“To this end, we will exert necessary diplomatic efforts as a pacemaker under close cooperation with the United States,” the statement said.

The Blue House added that it has actively participated in international discussions for a cease-fire in Iran and freedom of passage in the Strait of Hormuz and is “closely discussing practical and military contribution measures with the U.S. side.”

As of Tuesday, it was not clear what aspects of the exercise would be reduced under Trump’s order. In a statement reported by news agency Yonhap, the Pentagon said it “is actively working on executing the Commander-in-Chief’s directive.”

The order drew criticism from Democrats in Congress, who warned that reducing the exercises could undermine military readiness and weaken confidence in U.S. security commitments.

“When President Trump cuts military exercises to flatter a dictator or punishes South Korea for declining to join a war he started, all of our allies — and adversaries — think that America’s commitments are negotiable,” Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “Kim Jong Un has won a propaganda victory and South Korea, one of our strongest allies, has been punished for no reason beyond Trump’s ego.”

Peter Lee, a research fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said Trump’s order reflects his transactional approach to the alliance and longstanding skepticism about the costs of U.S. military commitments in South Korea.

“This latest directive should also be seen as a reminder that President Trump still has many cards he can play to pressure South Korea,” Lee told UPI. “The task for the Lee administration is therefore how to reduce this ‘unfaithful ally’ narrative that President Trump periodically returns to and instead lean into the ‘model ally’ framing that others such as [Defense] Secretary Hegseth have touted.”

Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump’s move went beyond his repeated public overtures to Kim and appeared aimed at drawing the North Korean leader back to the negotiating table.

“This is really the first concrete action he’s taken to try to entice Kim, and he’s used the timing of these exercises as the way to do it,” Cha said during a CSIS discussion Monday.

Pyongyang has not yet publicly responded to Trump’s announcement, and Cha said he did not expect an immediate reaction.

“I’m sure it’s a message that’s been heard … but I don’t think the North Koreans are going to respond right away,” he said. “I think they’re going to bide their time and wait a little bit.”

Trump similarly called for suspending or scaling back the exercises since his first term, when he pursued direct diplomacy with Kim that included summits in Singapore and Hanoi and a brief meeting at the DMZ.

After the Singapore summit in 2018, Trump surprised observers by announcing that the United States would halt what he called “provocative” joint military exercises with South Korea. That year’s Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise was canceled, while several subsequent drills were reduced in scale.

In his White House press availability, Trump denied that he was prioritizing North Korea over Washington’s allies in South Korea.

“I’m actually making it much safer,” he said in response to a question.

Trump also elaborated on his request for South Korea’s assistance with the war in Iran, saying he raised the issue in a recent call with President Lee Jae Myung.

“I said, ‘Would you like to give us a little hand? We don’t need help with Iran, but if you’d like, give us a hand with Iran.’ He said, ‘No thanks,'” Trump said.

Trump said he viewed Seoul’s refusal as a matter of “fairness,” citing the cost of maintaining U.S. forces in South Korea and his longstanding push for Seoul to shoulder more of the expense.

“We have 39,000 soldiers over there guarding you from Kim Jong Un, your next-door neighbor, and you are not going to help us on a very easy military operation in Iran,” he said.

The United States has roughly 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea.

Later Monday, Trump posted a meme of Kim on his Truth Social account. The image showed the North Korean leader surrounded by military officials and speaking into a telephone, with the caption: “Hey Donald, we cool … right?”

The number of job vacancies has fallen to its lowest level in more than five years as smaller businesses cut back on recruitment, the latest official figures indicate.

Vacancy numbers dipped slightly over the May-to-July period to 707,000, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which said small firms were citing labour and operating costs as reasons for scaling back hiring.

The ONS said the labour market was “little changed overall”, with the unemployment rate remaining at 4.9%.

Growth in regular earnings – which excludes bonuses – picked up slightly, rising at an annual pace of 3.5% in the three months to June.

“The UK labour market remains stuck in a low-churn limbo, with employers reluctant to hire, fire or offer bigger pay rises as they grapple with rising costs, intensifying global headwinds and heightened policy uncertainty,” said Suren Thiru, chief economist at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

“The persistent slide in vacancies is a red flag for the jobs market, suggesting labour demand is shrinking amid soaring employment and energy costs, while greater automation is also squeezing some entry-level roles.”

Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG, noted that while pay growth picked up, this was “driven by a rise in public sector wages”.

Private sector pay growth, which she said gave more accurate picture of underlying conditions in the labour market, slowed to 2.8%.

AFTER months of speculation, Olivia Attwood and Pete Wicks finally hard-launched their relationship last week.

But while from the outside it looks like the 35-year-old is happier than ever following the collapse of her marriage to Bradley Dack earlier this year, we can reveal the niggling issue that has been holding her back.

Insiders tell us that the Love Island alumni finally feels ready to move on after taking a huge step and getting rid of ex Bradley from her life once and for all. 

Our insider explained: “Olivia finally decided to unfollow Brad’s mum.

“The unfollow feels like Olivia’s final act of cutting herself off from Bradley’s world completely.

“She’d already started emotionally detaching, but removing his mum feels far more symbolic because that was a relationship she genuinely valued in its own right.

“For Olivia, it’s less about being petty and more about drawing a line under that entire chapter. She knows keeping those connections alive would make it harder to properly move on.

“There’s a real sense of finality to it — almost like she’s accepted she can’t keep one foot in the family while trying to build a life away from Bradley. Olivia feels like she can finally breathe.”

Over the years, Olivia had grown very close to Brad’s family, particularly his mum and sister.

She first started dating the footballer in 2015, when Olivia was 24 and he was just 21. 

While it was an on and off relationship – thanks to Olivia taking part in Love Island – they ended up marrying.

His mum and sister even appeared in Olivia Meets Her Match and fans saw an unusually emotional side to Olivia as she thanked Brad’s mum for accepting her. 

In moving scenes she told her: “It means a lot to me to be welcomed into your family. 

“I’m being serious, it does. Throughout loads of periods of my life people haven’t got who I am. I can be misunderstood. It’s a lot. A lot of hair, a lot of boobs and I just love your son a lot.”  

But when the marriage came crashing down, Olivia’s relationship with his family was put to the test and we’re told that for some time, the star still felt very tied to them all.

Bradley has since been pictured with ex Emily Rose Moloney and she has started afresh with Pete, but being estranged from her in-laws has hit her hard.

Our insider continued: “It hurts because she didn’t just lose a husband, she lost a whole extended family dynamic she’d become attached to.

“But after seeing Bradley pictured with another woman and Olivia already exploring her new relationships, Olivia seems to have decided she needs a clean break, even if that means cutting ties with people she still cares about like his mum.”

Olivia has often been outspoken about her harrowing split from footballer Brad back in January.

She’s taken a series of savage swipes at her former man after claiming he cheated on her multiple times over the course of their 10-year relationship.

The TV star told fans she “stood by him” through the “lies” and “cheating” and hasn’t held back since. 

Just this week, she shared a post which many assumed was directed at Brad.

It read: “Stop being so f**king forgiving, people know exactly what the f**k they’re doing.” 

And when Brad reunited with his former flame  Emily Rose Maloney, Olivia’s outrage was almost palpable.

She couldn’t resist taking a swipe and remarked: “I have definitely beat up myself over my poor judgement over the past decade.

“But I guess I could have spent 10 years as the bit on the side / professional bench warmer… so silver linings I guess.”

The star has found happiness of her own though; her eight-year-long friendship with Pete recently developed into a romantic relationship.

Only weeks after splitting from Brad she was spotted snogging Pete on a night out – and they have been joined at the hip since.

Insiders suggested that Olivia would be keen to keep this relationship more under wraps, but both her and Pete haven’t been able to resist sharing snippets of their romance.

She gushed: “We tick a lot of the boxes that are really important.

“Our friendship group is nauseated by us – we’re one PDA away from being exiled. I’m like, ‘who are we?’ We’re bringing out a [new] side of each other.”

Up until now, Brad has clearly still been a thorn in her side, but could she be rid of it at last?

Our source added: “Those around her feel this was the last emotional cord she needed to cut before she could genuinely start looking forward rather than backwards. She can finally move on properly now.”

Aug. 18 (UPI) — The Pentagon has directed 30 U.S. academic institutions to immediately and comprehensively review their collaborations for ties to “foreign entities of concern” under threat of losing future federal research funding.

The Department of Defense announced the directive Monday, giving the unidentified institutions until Aug. 31 to report their findings in order to maintain eligibility for federal grants.

“Universities are critical partners in executing a wide range of Department of War research programs, and the Department must therefore ensure that our research investments are well protected from foreign exploitation,” Joseph Jewell, assistant secretary of Defense for Science and Technology, said in a statement, referring to the Defense Department by its secondary title authorized by President Donald Trump last year. Its statutory name remains the Department of Defense.

The audits are part of a broader effort to protect Defense Department research from foreign adversaries and follow legislation Congress passed in December 2024 as part of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act requiring annual reviews of research grants for compliance with Pentagon research-security policies.

The institutions are to review academic, financial and research ties with entities identified under Section 1286 of the fiscal year 2019 NDAA, as well as those associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes.

The list includes 130 academic and research institutions located in China, Russia and Iran. The list was updated last month.

The Pentagon said the audits are to protect U.S. taxpayer-funded research from getting into the hands of adversarial nations as well as from unauthorized transfer and intellectual property theft. It added that the audits will also aid the Department of Defense in better anticipating emerging threats and adapting to evolving adversarial tactics.

The Department of Defense “has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” Emil Michael, under secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said in a statement.

The institutions are also being directed to implement mitigation plans that include terminating what the Pentagon called “problematic partnerships.”