braces

OAKLAND — President Trump said Thursday that he had called off a planned federal “surge” into San Francisco after speaking with Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city leaders — a detente that officials and activists in the East Bay said they were not welcomed into and viewed with some suspicion, as potentially enlarging the target on their own communities.

Trump’s announcement came amid protests at the entrance to the U.S. Coast Guard base across the bay in Alameda County, where the Department of Homeland Security has begun staging additional forces. It followed a similar announcement by Lurie, who said he had told Trump during a phone call late Wednesday that San Francisco is “on the rise” and that “having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery.”

Lurie said Trump agreed to call off any federal deployment to the city, and that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — who is in charge of federal immigration forces — had “reaffirmed that direction” in a conversation with him Thursday morning.

Trump said on social media that his administration had been planning a “surge” in San Francisco beginning Saturday, but that Lurie had asked him “very nicely” to “give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,” and that other “friends” of Trump’s in the city had asked him to call it off because they believe Lurie is “making substantial progress.”

Trump said he told Lurie that he was “making a mistake, because we can do it much faster, and remove the criminals that the Law does not permit him to remove,” but that he had ultimately agreed to pause the surge — in part because Lurie has the support of prominent business leaders Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.

During a Thursday morning briefing less than an hour after Trump’s post, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and other East Bay leaders said they had “no information” about such a stand-down in their communities, and were still bracing for increased federal immigration raids given the staging of forces at nearby Coast Guard Island, which is in the waters between Alameda and Oakland.

“The federal administration, of course, has escalated its rhetoric and its enforcement posture in the Bay Area. We know that Border Patrol agents are being stationed on Coast Guard Island,” Lee said. “But … we are fully prepared. We’re monitoring developments closely and we’ll keep our residents informed if there are any confirmed changes. Oakland is and will continue to be a welcoming city for our immigrants and our refugees.”

The Department of Homeland Security defended the deployment of its agents to the region, saying they would be “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.”

Alameda County Dist. Atty. Ursula Jones Dickson said the staging of immigration forces in the East Bay was part of an established Trump administration “playbook” to rile up communities with immigration actions and then use any unrest to justify further force — and called on East Bay residents not to fall for it.

“We know that they’re baiting Oakland, and that’s why San Francisco, all of a sudden, is off the table,” Jones Dickson said. “So I’m not going to be quiet about what we know is coming. We know that their expectation is that Oakland is going to do something to cause them to make us the example.”

Lourdes Martinez, co-director of the immigrant rights program at Centro Legal de la Raza, said communities are understandably scared given recent legal rulings that federal immigration agents can stop people based on factors such as the color of their skin, the language they are speaking and the job sectors they work in — and organizers expect more such stops given the latest deployments.

She called on immigrants and others to protect themselves by readying documentation and making sure that they and their families are familiar with their rights to remain silent and to have an attorney — and how to contact legal advocacy groups in case of trouble. She also urged community members to report any detentions, to “make sure that nobody disappears.”

“We know this is an uncertain and stressful time. However, this is a moment of unity and power, not panic,” she said.

Shortly after Lee’s event, about 40 protesters gathered near a bridge leading to Coast Guard Island.

Music was blasting. One person wore a blow-up animal costume, a trend that gained momentum amid similar protests in Portland recently. Coast Guard members in tactical gear stood in a line across from protesters who screamed at them.

“We knew there was going to be [an immigration enforcement] presence here and we wanted to disrupt in a peaceful way — to make it harder for them to abduct people,” said Lindsey Swanson, 32, a financial planner who lives in Oakland.

Swanson and others said they believed immigration enforcement would also ramp up in San Francisco, despite Trump and Lurie’s morning assurances, and would continue in the East Bay regardless.

“There’s East Bay — Oakland, Berkeley — so calling off San Francisco means nothing,” said Rachel Kim, a 28-year-old Berkeley resident who is training to become a therapist.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Trump’s conversation with Lurie was an example of how he is willing to work with Democrats and other states to “do the right thing and clean up America’s cities.”

“He is genuinely interested in this effort to make our streets safer, to make our cities safe and clean again,” she said.

The morning events followed days of growing tensions in the Bay Area over Trump’s plans for the region, after he repeatedly suggested that he would send federal forces into San Francisco — which he called a “mess” in desperate need of help, despite data showing decreasing crime and homeless encampments and surging positive sentiment.

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed the staging of immigration agents in the area, and suggested it was the first move in a broader effort by Trump and his administration to stoke chaos and intimidate residents in yet another liberal part of the country.

“He sends out masked men, he sends out Border Patrol, he sends out ICE, he creates anxiety and fear in the community so that he can lay claim to solving that by sending in the Guard,” Newsom said. “This is no different than the arsonist putting out the fire.”

The response echoed those of leaders and activists in other cities where immigration forces and federal troops have been deployed, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland. It added to an already rancorous debate around Trump’s mass deportation initiative, which he campaigned on heavily, and the role of federal forces in American cities — something the founders of the nation limited to extreme circumstances.

Central to that debate has been Trump’s repeated and unprecedented decision to repeatedly send troops into American cities without the explicit support of state or local leaders. Federal judges have been divided on that issue, though it has so far been allowed to continue in Los Angeles by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But even in the appellate court, there has been tense disagreement.

Liberal judges on the court recently called for the decision allowing the deployments to continue in Los Angeles, which was made by a three-judge panel, to be reheard before a larger, 11-judge panel. When that request was denied, several dissented Wednesday — excoriating the deployments as a clear breach of constitutional law and the separation of powers.

Judge Marsha Berzon, in a dissent joined by 10 fellow 9th Circuit judges, wrote that the smaller panel in its preliminary deference to Trump had “invited presidents, now and in the future, to deploy military troops in response to the kinds of commonplace, shortlived, domestic disturbances whose containment conventionally falls to local and federal law enforcement units.”

Times staff writer Ana Ceballos, in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

President Trump’s decision to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington has California officials on high alert, with some worrying that he intends to activate federal forces in the Bay Area and Southern California, especially during the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Trump said that his use of the National Guard to fight crime could expand to other cities, and suggested that local police have been unable to do the job.

Legal experts say it is highly unusual and troubling for forces to be deployed without a major crisis, such as civil unrest or a natural disaster. The Washington deployment is another example of Trump seeking to use the military for domestic endeavors, similar to his decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles in June, amid an immigration crackdown that sparked protests, experts said.

Washington has long struggled with crime but has seen major reductions in recent years.

Officials in Oakland and Los Angeles — two cities the president mentioned by name — slammed Trump’s comments about crime in their cities. Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement that the president’s characterization wasn’t rooted in fact, but “based in fear-mongering in an attempt to score cheap political points.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it “performative” and a “stunt.”

Trump has said he would consider deploying the military to Los Angeles once again to protect the 2028 Olympic Games. This month, he signed an executive order that named him chair of a White House task force on the Los Angeles Games.

The White House has not said specifically what role Trump would play in security arrangements.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who sits on the city panel overseeing the Games, acknowledged last week that the city is a “little nervous” about the federal government’s plans for securing the event.

Congress recently approved $1 billion for security and planning for the Games. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security declined to explain to The Times how the funds will be used.

Padilla said her concern was based on the unpredictable nature of the administration, as well as recent immigration raids that have used masked, heavily armed agents to round up people at Home Depot parking lots and car washes.

“Everything that we’re seeing with the raids was a real curveball to our city,” Padilla said during a Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum event. It dealt “a real curveball to [efforts] to focus on the things that folks care about, like homelessness, like transportation … economic development,” she said.

Bass, appearing on CNN this week, said that using the National Guard during the Olympics is “completely appropriate.” She said that the city expects a “federal response when we have over 200 countries here, meaning heads of state of over 200 countries. Of course you have the military involved. That is routine.”

But Bass made a distinction between L.A. Olympics security and the “political stunt” she said Trump pulled by bringing in the National Guard and the U.S. Marines after protests over the federal government’s immigration crackdown. That deployment faces ongoing legal challenges, with an appeals court ruling that Trump had the legal authority to send the National Guard.

“I believed then, and I believe now that Los Angeles was a test case, and I think D.C. is a test case as well,” Bass said. “To say, well, we can take over your city whenever we want, and I’m the commander in chief, and I can use the troops whenever we want.”

On Monday, Trump tied his action to what has been a familiar theme to him: perceived urban decay.

“You look at Chicago, how bad it is, you look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore —they’re so far gone,” he said. “We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to lose our cities over this.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said officers and agents deployed across the District of Columbia have so far made 23 arrests for offenses including homicide, possession with intent to distribute narcotics, lewd acts, reckless driving, fare evasion and not having permits. Six illegal handguns were seized, she said.

Citing crime as a reason to deploy National Guard troops without the support of a state governor is highly unprecedented, experts said. The National Guard has been deployed to Southern California before, notably during the 1992 L.A. riots and the civil unrest after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis in 2020.

“It would be awful because he would be clearly violating his legal authorities and he’d be sued again by the governor and undoubtedly, by the mayors of L.A. and Oakland,” said William Banks, a law professor at Syracuse University. “The citizens in those cities would be up in arms. They would be aghast that there are soldiers patrolling their streets.”

The District of Columbia does not have control over its National Guard, which gives the president wide latitude to deploy those troops. In California and other states, the head of the National Guard is the governor and there are legal limits on how federal troops can be used.

The Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878 after the end of Reconstruction, largely bars federal troops from being used in civilian law enforcement. The law reflects a tradition dating to the Revolutionary War era that sees military interference in American life as a threat to liberty and democracy.

“We have such a strong tradition that we don’t use the military for domestic law enforcement, and it’s a characteristic of authoritarian countries to see the military be used in that way,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley Law School and a constitutional law expert. “That’s never been so in the United States, and many are concerned about the way in which President Trump is acting the way authoritarian rulers do.”

Whether the troops deployed to Los Angeles in June amid the federal immigration raids were used for domestic law enforcement in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is central in the trial underway this week in federal court in San Francisco.

If Trump were to send troops to California, Banks said, the only legal lever he could pull would be to declare an insurrection and invoke the Insurrection Act.

Unlike in D.C., Trump wouldn’t be able to federalize police departments in other parts of the country. There are circumstances where the federal government has put departments under consent decrees — a reform tool for agencies that have engaged in unlawful practices — but in those cases the government alleged specific civil rights violations, said Ed Obayashi, a Northern California sheriff’s deputy and legal counsel on policing.

“You are not going to be able to come in and take over because you say crime is rising in a particular place,” he said.

Oakland Councilman Ken Houston, a third-generation resident who was elected in 2024, said his city doesn’t need the federal government’s help with public safety.

Oakland has struggled with crime for years, but Houston cited progress. Violent crimes, including homicide, aggravated assault, rape and robbery are down 29% so far this year from the same period in 2024. Property crimes including burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny also are trending down, according to city data.

“He’s going by old numbers and he’s making a point,” Houston said of Trump. “Oakland does not need the National Guard.”

Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.

Schools and workplaces close, hundreds of flights cancelled and thousands evacuate as Typhoon Podul nears island.

Thousands of people have evacuated, schools have closed, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled as Typhoon Podul approaches southern Taiwan with wind gusts as strong as 191kph (118 mph).

The mid-strength Typhoon Podul is expected to make landfall later on Wednesday, and was reported to be intensifying as it approached Taiwan’s southeastern city of Taitung, weather officials said.

Podul “is strengthening”, Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lin Ting-yi said, with the typhoon on track to hit the sparsely populated Taitung County at about noon local time (04:00 GMT).

After making landfall, the storm is expected to hit Taiwan’s more densely populated western coast before moving into the Taiwan Strait and towards China’s southern province of Fujian later this week.

As much as 600mm (almost 24 inches) of rain has been forecast in southern mountainous areas over the next few days, the CWA said, while nine cities and counties announced the suspension of work and school, including the southern metropolises of Kaohsiung and Tainan.

Taiwan’s government said that more than 5,500 people had been evacuated in advance of the typhoon’s arrival, and all domestic flights – a total of 252 – as well as 129 international routes have been cancelled, the transport ministry said.

Typhoon Podul lashed Orchid Island with gusts of up to 155 kph at around 8 a.m. Wednesday, contributing to a power outage that hit 258 households in the island’s Tungching Village. Winds and rain were also intensifying in Taitung. pic.twitter.com/qaeCwFg9Vu

— Focus Taiwan (CNA English News) (@Focus_Taiwan) August 13, 2025

Taiwan’s two main international carriers, China Airlines and EVA Air, said their cancellations were for routes out of Kaohsiung, with some flights from the island’s main international airport at Taoyuan stopped as well.

In the capital, Taipei, which is home to Taiwan’s financial markets and is being spared the typhoon so far, residents reported clear skies and some sunshine.

Typhoon Danas, which hit Taiwan in early July, killed two people and injured hundreds as the storm dumped more than 500mm (19.6 inches) of rain across the south over a weekend, causing widespread landslides and flooding.

That was followed by torrential rain from July 28 to August 4, with some areas recording more than a year’s worth of rainfall in a single week. The week of bad weather left five people dead, three missing, and 78 injured, a disaster official said previously.

Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October, while scientists say human-driven climate change is causing more intense weather patterns.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — An Ohio city whose Haitian migrants were disparaged by a Donald Trump falsehood last year as he pitched voters on his plans for an immigration crackdown is now bracing to defend the community against possible deportation.

A group of about 100 community members, clergy and Haitian leaders in Springfield gathered this week for several days of training sessions as they prepare to defend potential deportees and provide them refuge.

“We feel that this is something that our faith requires, that people of faith are typically law-abiding people — that’s who we want to be — but if there are laws that are unjust, if there are laws that don’t respect human dignity, we feel that our commitment to Christ requires that we put ourselves in places where we may face some of the same threats,” said Carl Ruby, senior pastor of Central Christian Church.

Ruby said the ultimate goal of the group is to persuade the Trump administration to reverse its decision to terminate legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.

“One way of standing with the Haitians is getting out the message of how much value they bring to the city of Springfield,” he said. “It would be an absolute disaster if we lost 10,000 of our best workers overnight because their TPS ends and they can no longer work.”

In lieu of that, Ruby said, participants in the effort are learning how to help Haitians in other ways. That includes building relationships, accompanying migrants to appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and providing their families with physical shelter.

A speaker addresses a training session July 29, 2025, at Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio, which advised community and church leaders on how to support and shelter immigrants facing deportation.

(Obed Lamy / Associated Press)

A city in the crosshairs

Springfield found itself in an unwelcome spotlight last year after Trump amplified false rumors during a presidential debate that members of the mid-size city’s burgeoning Haitian population were abducting and eating cats and dogs. It was the type of inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he promoted throughout his campaign.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in June that it would terminate TPS as soon as Sept. 2 for about 500,000 Haitians who are already in the United States, some of whom have lived here for more than a decade. The department said conditions in the island nation have improved adequately to allow their safe return. The United Nations contradicts that assertion, saying that the economic and humanitarian crisis in Haiti has only worsened with the Trump administration’s cuts in foreign aid.

The announcement came three months after the administration revoked legal protections for thousands of Haitians who arrived legally in the United States under a humanitarian parole program as part of a series of measures implemented to curb immigration. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal judge’s order preventing the administration from revoking the parole program.

Last month, a federal judge in New York blocked the administration from accelerating an end to Haitians’ TPS protections, which the Biden administration had extended through at least Feb. 3, 2026, citing gang violence, political unrest, a major earthquake in 2021 and other factors.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said at the time that the Trump administration would eventually prevail and that its predecessors treated TPS like a “de facto asylum program.” In the meantime, the government has set the expiration date back to early February.

TPS allows people already in the United States to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe. Immigrants from 17 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon, were receiving those protections before Trump took office for his second term in January.

Participants hold a discussion in a breakout session during a training hosted by the group Undivided at Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio, aimed at teaching community and church leaders how to support and shelter immigrants facing deportation July 29, 2025.

(Obed Lamy / Associated Press)

Residents ponder next steps

Charla Weiss, a founding member of Undivided, the group that hosted the Springfield workshop, said participants were asked the question of how far they would go to help Haitian residents avoid deportation.

“The question that I know was before me is, how far am I willing to go to support my passion about the unlawful detainment and deportation of Haitians, in particular here in Springfield?” she said.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a longtime supporter of the Haitian community, was briefed by Springfield leaders during a visit to the city Friday. He told reporters that the state is bracing for the potential of mass layoffs in the region as a result of the TPS policy change, a negative for the workers and the companies that employ them.

“It’s not going to be good,” he said.

Lamy and Smyth write for the Associated Press and reported from Springfield and Columbus, Ohio, respectively.

Heavy police presence at Faridpur rally after violence erupts between security forces and supporters of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina.

Authorities in Bangladesh have imposed heavy security measures to prevent a repeat of further political violence, after clashes between security forces and supporters of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left four people dead and more than 50 injured.

Hundreds of police were deployed Thursday to the site of a planned rally in Faridpur by the National Citizen Party (NCP), a new political party formed by students who spearheaded the unrest that ousted longtime leader Hasina last year, local media reported. Their presence underlined the volatile political tensions that remain in the divided country nearly one year on from the mass protests that toppled Hasina from power.

On Wednesday, an NCP rally in Gopalganj district, Hasina’s ancestral home and a stronghold for her support base, erupted in violence when supporters of her Awami League party tried to disrupt the event.

Four people were killed and more than 50 were injured in the violence, local media reported, citing police.

Victims shot

Footage from Gopalganj showed pro-Hasina activists armed with sticks setting upon police and lighting vehicles on fire as NCP leaders arrived in vehicles at the party’s “March to Rebuild the Nation” event commemorating the uprising against Hasina.

More than 1,500 police, along with army and border guard personnel, were deployed to respond to the violence, the Dhaka Tribune reported, citing a police report. Armed personnel carriers were seen patrolling the streets as security forces responded to the unrest.

The English-language Daily Star, citing Gopalganj civil surgeon Abu Sayeed Md Faruk, named the four dead as Dipto Saha, Ramzan Kazi, Sohel and Emon. The newspaper reported that hospital staff had said that eight others were being operated on for bullet wounds.

Home Affairs adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that 10 police personnel were also injured in the violence, local media reported. He added that 25 people had been arrested over the unrest.

The streets of Gopalganj were quiet on Thursday, with shops closed and few vehicles on the road, the Dhaka Tribune reported, as authorities imposed a curfew on the district in response to the violence.

Divided nation

The violence in Gopalganj has underlined the volatile divisions that remain in Bangladesh nearly a year after Hasina was forced to resign, fleeing to exile on a helicopter to India, as the interim government struggles to ensure security.

Wednesday’s clashes drew promises of a harsh response from the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus that has governed the country since Hasina’s ouster last August.

Yunus said in a statement Wednesday that the attempt by Hasina’s supporters to disrupt the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”, and warned that the violence would “not go unpunished”.

The government said on Thursday that it had established a committee to investigate the violence, which would be chaired by Nasimul Ghani, senior secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, and report its findings within two weeks.

Blame traded

Despite its promises to crack down on those responsible, Yunus’s government has faced criticism for failing to deliver security in the divided country.

Hasina’s Awami League party, which authorities banned in May, posted a number of statements on social media platform X condemning the violence, including one saying that all the gunshot victims were supporters of the party. It blamed the interim government for the deaths and injuries.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of two parties, alongside the Awami League, that have traditionally dominated Bangladeshi politics, also criticised the government on Thursday over the violence, saying it had failed to maintain law and order.

Meanwhile, the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party condemned the attacks on the NCP and announced protests of its own.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal indicted Hasina and two senior officials over alleged crimes against humanity linked to a deadly crackdown on protesters during the uprising against her rule. In a separate, earlier ruling, Hasina – who lives in self-imposed exile in India – was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison for contempt of court by the tribunal.

Authorities say heavy rains caused flooding throughout the region, swamping infrastructure in New York City and beyond.

Two people have been killed in New Jersey following flash flooding in the northeastern United States that caused travel chaos, authorities said, as the region braced for more heavy rain.

Governor Phil Murphy on Tuesday noted the deaths occurred in the northern New Jersey city of Plainfield, where there were two storm-related deaths on July 3. A third person was killed in North Plainfield during that previous storm.

“We’re not unique, but we’re in one of these sort of high humidity, high temperature, high storm intensity patterns right now,” Murphy told reporters after touring storm damage in Berkeley Heights. “Everybody needs to stay alert.”

The names of the two latest victims were not immediately released Tuesday.

Flood warnings in states such as New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania began to expire on Tuesday morning as a torrential storm moved on, but some areas remain inundated with floodwater.

“A moisture-rich Summer-time airmass over much of the eastern/central US will continue to lead to areas of scattered to widespread thunderstorms capable of heavy downpours and flash flooding,” the National Weather Service said.

Videos show subway stations in New York City filling with fetid floodwater. Buses and cars in New Jersey were also stranded by flooding, and the state’s Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency on Monday, warning residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

Emergency workers save trapped residents in New York floods

Rescue workers in New York’s Westchester County helped recover people stuck in their vehicles amid rising waters.

“At this time, residents are still strongly advised to avoid all travel unless fleeing an area that is subject to flooding, or under an evacuation order,” said Carolyn Fortino, a spokesperson for the county executive.

Emergency workers also rescued people from flooded basements and carried out 16 water rescues after severe flash flooding in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

“Intense rainfall dropped over 7 inches of rain in less than five hours,” the fire department for the county’s Mount Joy Borough said in a social media post.

The storms come amid growing debate about US disaster preparedness and predictive capacity following deadly floods in Texas that killed at least 131 people earlier this month, including dozens of children at a summer camp.

Critics have argued that sweeping cuts to numerous government agencies, including weather prediction and meteorological services, will hinder the country’s ability to anticipate and respond to incidents of extreme weather, which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party’s nominee for New York City mayor, stated in a social media post that the flooding underscores the challenges that extreme weather driven by climate change will pose for existing and outdated infrastructure.

“We must upgrade our infrastructure for this new climate reality,” he said.

While rainfall is expected to diminish, weather services said that possible showers and thunderstorms could continue through the evening. They also warned that the region will face high temperatures in the coming days.

“After yesterday’s rainfall, today should be mainly dry. However, a few isolated showers or a thunderstorm is possible this afternoon/evening,” National Weather Service New York said in a social media post.

“Expect warm temperatures too, with highs in the 80s. Some spots in NYC, NE NJ, west CT, and Low Hud could reach a heat index of 95.”

WASHINGTON — Fallout from President Trump’s historic gamble to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities reverberated across the Middle East Sunday, as Washington braced for an unpredictable response from a cornered but determined Islamic Republic.

While the Iranian government downplayed the impact of the U.S. attack, noting the depths of its nuclear know-how built over decades of study, U.S. military officials said its precision strikes against Iran’s three main nuclear facilities caused “extremely severe damage and destruction.”

A senior Israeli official told The Times that Jerusalem was so satisfied with the operation that it was prepared to suspend hostilities if Iran ends its missile salvos against Israeli territory.

“We are ready to be done,” the Israeli official said, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

As the dust settled, the sun rose and satellite imagery emerged of the wreckage, the main question among Trump administration officials became how Tehran would respond — both militarily, against U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf and around the world, as well as with the remnants of its nuclear program, with so much of it destroyed.

Tehran’s nuclear-armed allies, in Russia and North Korea, have been critical of the military campaign, with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev raising the prospect of Moscow giving Iran a nuclear warhead in response to the attacks.

The Israeli official dismissed that idea, alluding to direct talks with Moscow over the Iranian program. “We are not concerned,” the official said.

President Trump addresses the nation Saturday night about the U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites. He is accomapnied by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

(Carlos Barria / Pool via Associated Press)

Trump’s military action, dubbed “Operation Midnight Hammer,” was a contingency years in the making, prepared and much feared by Trump’s predecessors over two decades as a desperate last resort to a nuclear Iran.

Ever since Tehran resumed its fissile enrichment program in 2005, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have warned that the Islamic Republic could never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. But a constellation of diplomatic talks and complex agreements have failed to dissuade Tehran from a fundamental principle of a “right to enrich” uranium — near to weapons grade — on its own soil.

Despite the dramatic nature of the U.S. air raid, few in Washington expressed an appetite for a prolonged U.S. war with Iran and echoed Israel’s interest in a truce after assessing its initial operations a success. Vice President JD Vance denied that the United States was “at war” with Iran on Sunday, telling CBS that the nation is, instead, “at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

But the prospect of another full-scale U.S. war in the Middle East, made palpable by the weekend strikes, shook Capitol Hill on Sunday, compelling Democrats who have long advocated a tough approach to Iran to push for a vote to restrict Trump under the War Powers Act.

More than 60 members of Congress, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, called on the Trump administration to seek congressional authorization for any further action. At least one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, joined in the call.

The Pentagon said that seven B-2 Spirit stealth bombers deployed a total of 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrators — 30,000-pound bombs known as “bunker busters,” for their ability to destroy facilities buried deep underground — against Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

The U.S. operation followed an Israeli campaign that began last week with strikes against Iranian air defenses and nuclear facilities, scientists and research facilities, as well as against military generals, ballistic missile launch pads and storage depots.

While the United States and Israel believe that Saturday’s strikes were a strategic victory, some concern remains that Iran may have removed critical equipment and materiel from its site in Fordow — an enrichment facility that had been burrowed into the side of a mountain — to an undisclosed location before the U.S. operation began, the Israeli official said.

“That remains a question mark,” the official added, while expressing confidence that Israeli intelligence would be aware of any other significant nuclear facilities.

Addressing the nation on the attacks on Saturday night, Trump warned Iran that U.S. attacks could continue if it refuses to give up on its nuclear program.

“There will be either peace, or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,” Trump said, flanked by his vice president, national security advisor and secretary of defense. “Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.”

Satellite image shows the Natanz enrichment facility in Iran after U.S. strikes.

(Maxar Technologies via Associated Press)

Across the region Sunday, the question paramount on observers’ minds was what shape Iran’s response would take.

Iranian officials downplayed the strikes’ impact, acknowledging damage to nuclear facilities but that the know-how remained intact.

“They [the United States and Israel] should know this industry has roots in our country, and the roots of this national industry cannot be destroyed,” said Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, according to a Sunday interview with the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.

“Of course, we have suffered some losses, but this is not the first time that the industry has suffered damage. … Naturally, this industry must continue and its growth will not stop.”

Hassan Abedini, the deputy political director of Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB, said the three targeted nuclear sites had already been emptied some time before the attacks and that they “didn’t suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out.”

Other officials, including leaders in the targeted areas in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow, reassured residents there was no nuclear contamination as a result of the strikes and that they could “go on with their lives,” according to a statement Sunday from government spokesperson Fatemah Mohajerani.

The U.S. attacks drew swift pleas for restraint from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both of which issued statements calling on all parties to de-escalate. Iraq, meanwhile, said the U.S. escalation “constitutes a grave threat to peace and security in the Middle East,” according to an interview with its government spokesman on Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

Oman, a key mediator in the negotiations between Tehran and Washington, was more scathing, expressing what it said was its “denunciation and condemnation” of the U.S.’s attacks.

In Europe, as well, governments urged caution and affirmed support for Israel.

“We have consistently been clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and can no longer pose a threat to regional security,” France, Germany, and Italy, known as the E3, said in a statement. “Our aim continues to be to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

The last significant face-off between Iran and the United States happened during Trump’s first term, when he ordered the assassination of top Iranian commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani in 2020.

Satellite image shows a close view of the Isfahan nuclear technology facility in Iran after U.S. strikes.

(Maxar Technologies via Associated Press)

That attack spurred predictions of a furious retaliation, with fears of Tehran deploying its missile arsenal or activating its network of regional militias to attack U.S. forces and interests across Washington’s footprint in the region. Instead, Tehran reacted with little more than an openly telegraphed ballistic missile barrage on a U.S. base in Iraq.

Iran’s options are even more limited this time. Much of that network — known as the “Axis of Resistance” and which included militias and pro-Tehran governments in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan and Yemen — lies incapacitated after more than 20 months of Israeli attacks.

Allies such as Russia and China, though issuing condemnations of the U.S. attack, appear to have little appetite for involvement beyond statements and offers of mediation. And how much remains of Tehran’s missile capacity is unclear, with the Israeli official estimating roughly 1,000 ballistic missiles – half of their capacity before the most recent conflict started – remaining available to them.

Nevertheless, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that the United States should expect “regrettable responses.”

“Instead of learning from repeated failures, Washington effectively placed itself on the front lines of aggression by directly attacking peaceful installations,” said a statement from the Guard Corps on Sunday. It hinted that its targets would include U.S. military presence in the region.

“The number, dispersion, and size of U.S. military bases in the region are not a strength, but have doubled their vulnerability,” the statement said.

The United States has more than 40,000 stationed in the region, according to Pentagon figures, and has bases in at least 10 countries in the region, not to mention a significant presence at sea.

Yet experts say the likeliest scenario would involve disruptions to shipping lanes, with Iran leveraging its control of the Strait of Hormuz, an oil transit chokepoint handling a fifth of the world’s energy flows, that is 30 miles wide at its narrowest point; or calling on Yemen’s Houthis to intensify their harassment campaign of merchant vessels on the Red Sea.

It a situation in which Iran has experience: During its conflict with Iraq in the eighties, Tehran engaged in the the so-called “Tanker War,” attacked hundreds of Iraqi ships near Hormuz and entering into direct confrontations with the U.S. Navy.

Shippers are already girding themselves for disruptions. But Danish shipping giant Maersk said it was continuing to use the Strait of Hormuz for the time being.

“We will continuously monitor the security risk to our specific vessels in the region and are ready to take operational actions as needed,” Maersk said in a statement.

Wilner reported from Washington, Bulos from Beirut.

LAFC has won an MLS Cup and played in two CONCACAF Champions League finals.

None of those games were worth as much as the team’s upcoming match.

Literally.

Next up for LAFC is the $10-Million Game, in which it will play Mexico’s Club América on Saturday at Banc of California to determine the final entrant in the Club World Cup. The 32-team tournament, which will be staged across the United States from mid-June to mid-July, has a record-breaking billion-dollar prize pool.

By simply qualifying for the event and playing in three group-stage matches, LAFC would be entitled to a participation fee of $9.55 million.

That might not be considered a significant prize for the Dodgers or Lakers, but it’s a major bounty for LAFC, which had a payroll of about $20 million last season.

“We know what’s at stake,” LAFC co-president John Thorrington said.

Imagine that, a Major League Soccer team playing a game with real consequences. The stakes are unusually high for a team in a league in which 18 of 30 teams reach the postseason and the threat of relegation is non-existent.

Real money will be on the line.

That’s money that could go toward covering the transfer fee or salary of the team’s next signature player, as one of LAFC’s three designated-player slots could open this summer.

Thorrington preferred to emphasize the symbolic importance of LAFC reaching the Club World Cup, how it would move the team one step closer to its long-stated ambition of becoming a global brand.

“The conversation here is not dominated by the financial benefit here, but rather the competitive opportunity that this game and the tournament present,” Thorrington said.

If LAFC advances to the Club World Cup, its opening game will be against Chelsea of the English Premier League. The other group-stage games would be against ES Tunis of Tunisia and Flamengo of Brazil.

“I think it would be something special,” defender Eddie Segura said in Spanish.

The tournament could also be a wake-up call for MLS, which has two other teams in the competition in Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders. The league has a salary cap, as well as paint-by-numbers roster compliance rules that permit minimal flexibility on how its teams can spend money. Soccer is a sport in which teams are only as good as their weakest links, but the regulations force clubs to construct top-heavy rosters.

As it was, the financial restrictions were already handicapping MLS teams in its competitions against its Mexican counterparts, with LAFC relying on its smarts instead of the economic might of its deep-pocketed owners to reach two Champions League finals. Now, MLS teams will be taking on opponents with virtually unlimited budgets. Just two years ago, Chelsea spent more than a billion dollars buying players in a single transfer window.

The Club World Cup’s cash prizes offer MLS a powerful incentive to loosen its rules. Group-stage wins are worth $2 million each. Teams will be paid $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16. The champion will take home more than $100 million.

The payouts could also force MLS to make changes to its collective bargaining agreement, which was signed when the Club World Cup was still a seven-team tournament. Under the current CBA, LAFC’s players would divide $1 million, with the remainder of the $9.55 million participation fee staying with the club.

Segura said the players are engaged in talks over their compensation.

“The club would benefit a lot, but I hope that we as players, as the ones who are there giving everything, will also have a chance to benefit,” Segura said.

The upcoming game has also offered LAFC a firsthand view of FIFA’s operations.

LAFC’s and Club América’s opportunity came at the expense of León, which was removed from the Club World Cup field because it was owned by the same group that owned another Mexican team in the tournament, Pachuca.

León qualified for the tournament by defeating LAFC in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final. Rather than award León’s place to LAFC, FIFA basically invented a play-in game out of thin air, calling on LAFC to take on Club América, which was the region’s highest-ranked team that wasn’t already in the tournament.

LAFC was at least granted a chance. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup last season, but Inter Miami received the place reserved for the host nation before the MLS playoffs even started. The purported reason was that Inter Miami had the league’s best regular-season record. However, the widespread suspicion was that FIFA wanted Lionel Messi in the tournament.

After all, money is what is driving this tournament and money is what is driving the sport.