Donald Trump

Aug. 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that Staff Secretary Will Scharf will be his new White House counsel, promoting another former personal lawyer within his administration.

Scharf, who was on Trump’s legal team in the presidential immunity case before the Supreme Court, will assume his new position Sept. 1, Trump said in a social media statement, replacing David Warrington, himself a former personal lawyer for Trump, who is returning to private practice.

“Will has done an amazing job in his current role as White House Staff secretary and has also served as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. I know him well!” Trump said.

“Will is tough, strong and smart! He also loves our Country, and respects the Law. Will Scharf will do a great job as White House Counsel!”

As staff secretary, Scharf oversees the everyday paperwork, presidential actions, speeches, correspondence and press releases of the president, and is frequently at Trump’s side during signing ceremonies where he is seen handing him executive orders.

As the new White House counsel, Scharf will be in charge of advising Trump and White House staff on legal issues, including the interpretation of laws and their intersection with policies.

Scharf has also been serving as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, which approved Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom. On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled the ballroom unlawful and ordered its construction to stop, though the ruling was stayed for 14 days to give the White House time to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The announcement also comes a day after the U.S. Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, another former personal lawyer for Trump, as attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi, whom Trump fired in April.

At least seven lawyers who represented Trump personally or served on his legal teams now hold positions in his administration, including Blanche, Warrington, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

Scharf was a member of the legal team that successfully argued before the Supreme Court that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for actions taken while in office as part of the federal election interference case brought against Trump by the Justice Department under the Biden administraiton.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — Iran has replaced its top security official with another commander of its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a spokesman for Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian said late Sunday.

Mohsen Rezaei, who had been an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, will be the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. He replaced Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who resigned.

Zolghadr had been in the post since his predecessor, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli air strike in March. He will serve as political adviser to Khamenei.

The shakeup came as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is not talking directly with the U.S. to end the war with Tehran and open the Strait of Hurmuz, despite claims by U.S. officials that the sides are near a deal.

Araghchi was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying that “messages are being exchanged through intermediaries” and Iran isn’t talking directly with Washington. He reportedly added Washington must meet conditions by Iran if a deal is reached with Oman to open a trade route through the waterway.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday his administration is “low keying it” in negotiations with Tehran.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money,” Trump said. “It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and Khamenei would have to agree to any deal to open the strait.

On Saturday, Zolghadr said U.S. forces should be withdrawn from near Iran. He added that the U.S. should compensate Iran for war damages as well as lift sanctions.

Iranian diplomats said earlier last week that Tehran and Oman were near a new agreement to manage the strait.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) says F-16 fighter jets intercepted two civilian aircraft that entered restricted airspace over Bedminster, New Jersey, where US President Donald Trump was watching a tournament at his golf course.

Aug. 9 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel rejects a U.S.-backed 15-point plan to disarm Gaza.

Last month, President Donald Trump‘s Board of Peace created the plan for the gradual disarmament of Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory.

But in a cabinet meeting Sunday, a readout from Netanyahu’s office from a meeting of government ministers said, “I want to be clear here — Israel is ruling out the 15-point plan.”

He said he has told the Trump administration about his concerns.

The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens,” Netanyahu said.

“We are now discussing this with the Americans,” he said. “They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand up to those things.”

He reiterated his opposition to a two-state solution.

“As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not in the West Bank,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu and his coalition are facing a difficult re-election vote in late October.

“Contrary to all those who preach to us, we do what must be done for Israel’s security and we can and will stand our ground even against our best friends when necessary,” Netanyahu added.

Hamas has said that handing over its heavy weapons was contingent on Israel ending “all forms of aggression” and withdrawing from Gaza.

“We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ politburo, said on X Sunday.

Since the cease-fire last October, Israel has continued to strike Gaza.

Israel’s military occupies more than half of Gaza, and Netanyahu’s far-right allies have implied that they want to expand the control. They lauded Netanyahu’s comments.

“The [Israeli military] cannot retreat one millimeter in the Gaza Strip,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain restricted unless the US meets a series of demands. The UAE accuses Tehran of targeting an oil tanker, while Yemen’s Houthis claim an attack on a Saudi refinery. Al Jazeera’s Nour Hegazy reports.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as president of Colombia Friday amid tight security at a ceremony held in the auditorium of a private university in Cali, the South American nation’s third-largest city.

De la Espriella took an oath to “faithfully uphold the Constitution and laws of Colombia” as he received the presidential sash from Sen. Honorio Henríquez, president of Colombian congress and a member of the far-right Democratic Center party.

Once installed, the new leader then swore in his vice president, José Manuel Restrepo, while his guest of honor, 74-year-old farmer Luis Felipe Yagüé, looked on as a symbol of De la Espriella’s support for small business owners and entrepreneurs, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.

The event triggered tight security measures, with 11,000 members of the security forces mobilized to ensure safety in Cali and the surrounding areas, local media reported. The strict measures included a ban on alcohol sales, transportation restrictions and reinforcements of the National Police.

No incidents of violence or narcoterrorism were reported in Cali on Friday, officials said.

Former Colombian presidents such as César Gaviria, Álvaro Uribe and Iván Duque were in attendance for the ceremony, but 2016 Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, president from 2010 to 2018, was not invited, EFE reported.

Also in attendance at Santiago de Cali University were King Felipe VI of Spain, Argentine president Javier Milei and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, as well as host of other Latin American leaders.

Meanwhile, members of outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s leftist Historical Pact party, boycotted De la Espriella’s swearing in ceremony. Many of them claim the ally of U.S. President Donald Trump won through fraud in the June 21 runoff election and that his victory was illegitimate.

Petro last month barred De la Espriella from holding his inauguration at a military base, triggering an unprecedented institutional dispute highlighting the country’s deepening political polarization.

The then-president repeated his claim that the incoming government “was not elected by a majority of the people.”

During the ceremony, De la Espriella reiterated his “tough-on-crime” credentials by announcing he will publish a list of local narco-terrorist organizations and instruct police to battle them more forcefully in a further repudiation of Petro’s “Total Peace” strategy of negotiating with armed groups.

“The option of dialogue is completely exhausted,” he asserted, according to CNN.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — Greenland has issued a “strong warning” to an American oil company linked to President Donald Trump, as it prepares to drill on the territory despite lacking proper permits.

Local residents in the southeastern region of Jameson Land recently spotted a barge carrying drilling equipment, The Guardian reported.

The equipment belongs to Greenland Energy, a Texas-based oil company whose chairman, Larry Swets, is part of Trump’s inner-circle.

Two days after a rebuke from the Greenlandic government, the president posted on Truth Social an AI-generated image showing a giant Trump, looming over the island, with the words, “Hello, Greenland!”

Greenland Energy officials said they plan to spend $60 million to drill two wells in Jameson Land, the Guardian reported. The company believes there could be as much as $1 trillion of crude in the region.

“The Department of Industry and Minerals can, in connection with the above, state that the licensee did not have the necessary approvals from the mineral resources authority in place before initiating this operation,” Greenland’s government said in a statement.

The statement added the government was sending a “strong warning” to the operators behind the move.

Due to environmental concerns, the Greenlandic government has not issued oil licenses since 2021.

But Greenland Energy acquired exploration rights previously held by British company 80 Mile. In exchange for funding exploration, Greenland Energy would retain a majority of the proceeds from the venture, the Helsinki Times reported.

Transferring the rights still requires government approval, which Greenland Energy has not yet managed.

“The approval has since expired and has not currently been renewed, but is under processing,” the government said in the statement.

A spokesperson for Greenland Energy said the company has 300 containers of drilling equipment ready to be shipped from Canada in September, with the goal of launching operations in earnest in October, the Guardian reported.

Trump has, for years, been adamant in his desire to annex Greenland. He has claimed the United States needs it “for defense.”

In January, he told European leaders that one of the reasons he renewed his push to own the territory was because he did not win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump has been rebuffed by officials in both Denmark and Greenland.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The Defense Department is pressuring U.S. military contractors to produce weapons and munitions “significantly faster” as the country’s stockpile dwindles due to the Iran war, it was reported Saturday.

In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, the Pentagon told industry leaders to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg said contractors have 21 days to submit plans on how they plan to achieve that.

“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg wrote in the Wednesday memo obtained by The Post. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”

Multiple news outlets reported this week that the United States had depleted much of its stockpile of long-range precision missiles in Iran.

In just the first month of the conflict, the military launched more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles, alarming some Pentagon officials, The Post reported.

Officials have said the U.S. military has been launching the missiles faster than manufacturers can replace them.

President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed the reports, saying the United States has “massive amounts” of munitions.

“Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed,” he wrote on Truth Social. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”

“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” Trump added. “Long-term jail sentences will be sought!”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the military “has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing.”

“We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests,” he added in a statement to CBS News.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of State announced Friday that the United States intends to give $1 billion to the new government of Colombia, which is now in the control of Abelardo de la Espriella, the right-wing candidate backed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

In a press release, the State Department said the government sent a delegation led by now-confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche to Colombia to attend the inauguration of de la Espriella in Cali, Colombia, on Friday.

“The delegation demonstrates U.S. commitment to reinvigorating the U.S.-Colombia relationship and deepening of our shared security and economic partnership,” the press release from the office of the State Department’s spokesperson said. “As a cornerstone of this renewed partnership, the United States, working with Congress, intends to announce $1 billion in assistance as part of a security package to support President de la Espriella’s administration in achieving our shared goals.”

The goals center around de la Espriella’s promise of an “all-out war” on drug cartels.

De la Espriella, 48, is a lawyer and businessman and has worked to gain a reputation as a maverick outsider who plans to battle crime with an “iron fist,” the BBC reported. He promised to crack down on armed groups, shrink the government by up to 40% and rejuvenate the oil and gas sector.

“I have come to close a long chapter of national resignation and, together with the people, embark on the most profound transformation ⁠of our destiny,” De La Espriella said at the Pichincha Battalion military base in Cali, Colombia, Friday.

“I send a firm message to the Colombian people: The time has come to restore order, authority and freedom,” De La Espriella said. He pledged to crush armed insurgents, rebuild Colombia and defend democracy “by reason or by force.”

The new president comes to power during a time of deep political polarization in the country. He defeated leftist Sen. Iván Cepeda in a runoff election by 250,000 votes out of more than 26 million cast.

De la Espriella said he is bringing “the age of the Tiger,” when the state would be forceful and decisive against crime. His self-chosen nickname is “El Tigre.”

“There will not be a single place in our territory where criminals can feel safe,” he said.

He vowed to “definitively eradicate the scourge of illicit crops,” saying he would use aerial herbicides that did not harm human health or the environment to destroy coca, the plant used to make cocaine. In one of his first acts as president, Colombia would join Trump’s Shield of the Americas program, he said.

His campaign is very different from his predecessor Gustavo Petro. Pedro pushed for a “total peace” strategy to end an ongoing fight between guerrilla groups, the state and cartels.

Sadly, the program failed, critics have alleged. Membership of armed groups has expanded in recent years.

De la Espriella is a citizen of the United States as well as Colombia. He lived and worked in Miami for many years and became a U.S. citizen in 2023.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — Overnight Russian attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region killed at least 4 people, one of which was a 3-year-old child, officials said Saturday.

Two of boy’s grandparents were also killed in the strike from Russian drones in the Brovary district of the Kyiv region, northeast of the capital city. Four others — the boy’s 15-year-old brother, his parents and a neighbor — were injured as they tried to help the three. They were all hospitalized.

In Kyiv, the city’s military administration said one other person was killed and four others wounded.

Ukraine‘s air force reported that it had downed or intercepted 135 of 151 drones launched by Russia overnight. The attack also involved six ballistic missiles and other guided missiles, CBS News reported.

“Last night, Russia killed three people in Pukhivka, Kyiv region, with drone strikes — a grandfather, a grandmother and their grandson. The boy was only 3 years old,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X. “Four more people were hospitalized: the child’s parents, his 15-year-old brother and a neighbor who came to the family’s aid and was wounded in a double-tap strike. The victims suffered thermal burns and shrapnel wounds. My condolences. It was an ordinary residential building. The Russians could not have been unaware of this. There was also a strike involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure in Kyiv. As of now, one person has been reported dead. My condolences to the family and loved ones. The Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Poltava regions also came under attack.”

Zelensky went on to reiterate that Ukraine needs more support, including stronger sanctions on Russia and anti-ballistic missile weapons.

The Ukrainian president is on an official visit to Serbia, a close ally of Russia. It’s a first for Zelensky, and the two countries agreed to work toward closer economic ties. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said his country will support Ukraine’s territorial integrity with “no buts” during a joint press conference, The Kyiv Post reported. Serbia is trying to join the European Union.

Zelensky has been trying to get the United States to license its Patriot interceptor missiles, but President Donald Trump has hesitated.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Friday that imposes new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill was once championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. On Friday, the Senate voted 86 to 11 in favor of passing The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.

A drone also entered Bulgarian airspace Saturday after crossing from Romania and exploded near an international gas pipeline, the BBC reported Bulgarian prime minister Rumen Radev said. He said there was a “significant” amount of explosives aboard the drone, but that there were no casualties or reports of damage. It’s not clear where the drone originated.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate passed a stopgap funding bill Saturday that would fund the government through Dec. 11 to prevent a government shutdown in September.

The bill was put in place to avoid a shutdown before November’s midterm elections. It’s unclear if the bill will pass the House of Representatives. The Senate passed the bill in a bipartisan 90-6 vote, with Sen. Darline Graham , R-S.C., voting present.

The Senate is now on a five-week recess and is scheduled to return Sept. 14.

The House passed a similar bill on July 22.

The Senate bill includes a section that would bar President Donald Trump from transferring funds to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a provision that Democrats demanded.

It would also delay a ban on intoxicating hemp products, which is scheduled to go into effect in November. The ban was made law in November 2025 with a one-year delay. The law redefined hemp and would make most hemp products illegal, including CBD, Delta-9 and others. The new delay would push implementation back until December.

A group of Republican Senators, led by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., tried to block the delay of the law, but failed.

“After three unnecessary lapses in funding during the fiscal year 2026 cycle, putting the possibility of yet another harmful shutdown off the table should be a priority for each and every one of us,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Democrats lauded the measure to prevent backdoor funding of the Border Patrol.

“This is an important step forward to prevent a shutdown no one wants and provide the runway we need to negotiate funding bills in the months ahead as we fight to rein in Trump’s corruption and make life more affordable for families back home,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the committee.

The bill also blocks the Trump administration until the end of the stopgap from finalizing a rule that would put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said this week that he’s going to “fight like hell” in December to ensure Congress doesn’t further block Trump’s grant overhaul.

Collins said she will “continue to oppose” the administration’s plans “because I think they politicize the grants process, and I don’t want that to occur.” Murray said she, too, would “welcome the fight.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, praised the Senate bill for including the grant and immigration enforcement language.

“This bill is a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution, but we are still nearly two months away from the end of the fiscal year and should be working together to pass full-year funding bills,” she said in a statement.

After passing the funding legislation, the Senate narrowly approved the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general early Saturday morning.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump‘s former personal defense attorney, as U.S. attorney general early Saturday morning.

Two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against the confirmation. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., missed the vote.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., was a critical vote because he had raised concerns about Blanche. He, along with John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said they were uncomfortable with the politicization of the Department of Justice, as well as the controversial settlement between the president and the IRS in which Trump was given $1.8 billion fund to compensate people that he believed were victims of political prosecutions.

All three of them voted to confirm Blanche.

Cassidy said he chose to vote for Blanche because Trump might nominate someone worse.

“The choice is not between perfection and Mr. Blanche,” Politico reported Cassidy said on the Senate floor. “It is between Mr. Blanche and another acting attorney general who may not run the department effectively under President Trump and who indeed may not be as good as Mr. Blanche.”

The vote tally was 50-49 at 4:31 a.m. Saturday. The Senate then left for a five-week recess.

Blanche has been acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi from the position in April.

“I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice as our great nation’s 88th Attorney General,” Blanche said in a post on X. “I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process.”

Not everyone supported Blanche’s nomination.

“The problem with confirming Todd Blanche is that he has never been able to shed his role as criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. He just can’t do it,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance the nomination. “He will never do what’s best for the American people. He will only do what’s best for Donald Trump, and you cannot leave someone like that as the nation’s No. 1 law enforcement official.”

“The biggest concern is whether he is now going to be emboldened to go even more gung-ho on Trump’s campaign of using the Justice Department for retribution,” former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson told NBC News in an interview before the confirmation. “There are no guardrails.”

“America is safer with Todd Blanche at the helm of the Justice Department,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement.

Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he disagrees.

“It was a grave mistake for the Senate to approve Todd Blanche as the next Attorney General,” he said in a post on X. “If there is ever a moment in history when we need an AG above reproach, who is dedicated to ending corruption, it is right now. This nation deserves an Attorney General who loves the Constitution more than he loves the President. Sadly, Todd Blanche is not that person.”

Aug. 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday urged U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to reinstall charges against several people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Pirro, a long-time Trump ally, has been in hot water with the president since admitting last week that damage to the pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.”

On Friday, Trump said Pirro should “re-visit her hastily made decision.”

“Now that people are able to see it up close, they are reporting pure VANDALISM at The Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

A D.C. judge on Thursday dismissed the case against the most prominent of the defendants, Olympian David Hearn, 67, who faced 10 years in prison on a felony charge.

Defense attorneys have requested the dismissal of misdemeanor charges against three other people accused of vandalism.

Hearn and the other defendants were indicted on accusations that they purposefully ripped up pieces of the recently-installed blue sealant from the pool’s bottom.

But in court filings, Pirro’s office said she had been misled by the Interior Department into believing they had caused “nearly all of the damage” to the pool.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump posted on Truth Social the following day. “I don’t know what she was thinking?”

Renovating the reflecting pool cost the government nearly $15 million in a no-bid contract.

In court filings, Pirro said the “botched” renovation “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.”

“Davey Hearn is innocent and today’s dismissal reflects that simple fact,” the Olympian’s lawyers said in a statement on Thursday.

“But this case never should’ve been brought in the first place,” they added. “The Department of Justice’s decision to seek an indictment was a miscarriage of justice.”

Aug. 7 (UPI) — The Defense Department on Friday revoked Frank Kendall’s access to classified information, accusing the former secretary of the Air Force of leaking sensitive information to the press.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Frank was the source who told reporters that President Donald Trump‘s new Qatari-gifted jet lacked certain security features.

Parnell said the Defense Department revoked Kendall’s “eligibility for access to classified information and his ability to hold any sensitive position.”

“This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One‘s capabilities to a media outlet,” the spokesman wrote on X. “Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty.

“Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it.”

Kendall, a lawyer and engineer, served as U.S. secretary of the Air Force from 2021 to 2025 under the Biden administration.

When asked about the new Qatari jet, Kendall told CNN it would take three to four years to get the plane on-par with the expectations of an aircraft serving as Air Force One.

The New York Times first reported that Trump’s new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8, lacked advanced security features such as antimissile capabilities.

The plane was a $400 million gift from Qatar, but despite retrofitting, did not reach the level of safety required of the U.S. president’s main aircraft, The Times reported.

Trump denied the report and called for the prosecution of leakers, though days later he said the plane would be taken out of commission to be “maxed out” — tacitly admitting it wasn’t fully upgraded already.

The Trump administration subpoenaed four Times journalists over the incident.

A new mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan has raised questions about the shifting geopolitical landscape of the Middle East, where fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran has prompted some countries to seek new arrangements to safeguard their security.

The pact, termed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, was signed in the Saudi city of Mecca on Friday.

“The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression, and stipulates that any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” a statement from the meeting reads.

“It further provides for the enhancement of all aspects of defence cooperation among the three states.”

While it is not yet clear what such an agreement might look like in practice, analysts say the pact points to growing questions about the durability of US security guarantees.

“Regional states have harbored growing doubts about the reliability of the US security partnership for more than a decade,” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told Al Jazeera over email.

“Both the decision to begin military operations against Iran and the subsequent conduct of the war and the on-off attempts to resolve it have only intensified those concerns and accelerated efforts to diversify security and defence relations.”

But, Ulrichsen added, building new defence pacts is likely not intended “to replace or supplant the US, but to provide additional strategic and policy options”.

Uncertainty over US role

While the administration of US President Donald Trump has yet to weigh in on the pact, analysts say the agreement is an effort by the three countries to reorient themselves after the turmoil of the Iran war.

“This is one of the first major geopolitical signs that the regional order is being reshaped by the US-Israeli war on Iran,” Sina Toossi, an analyst at the Center for International Policy, told Al Jazeera.

“The significance is less about a formal military alliance than about what it says regarding how regional states are reassessing security.”

Toossi pointed to the long-running alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia. For decades, the two countries have enjoyed a strong relationship, hinged on shared security interests. But the pact could be a sign that Saudi Arabia is looking to expand its security alliances.

“Rather than relying primarily on Washington, Saudi Arabia appears to be broadening its security partnerships and laying the groundwork for more intra-regional security arrangements,” Toossi explained. “That is arguably the most important takeaway.”

Media reports have also indicated that US partners in the Middle East were frustrated that the Trump administration had launched February’s war against Iran with little apparent thought to the impact on allies in the region.

Iranian forces have launched waves of missile and drone strikes against US military facilities in the Middle East, causing bystander casualties. Iran has also targeted civilian infrastructure, including energy and desalination plants.

Tehran’s decision to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for the region’s energy exports, has also imposed a steep cost on local economies.

Despite heavy strikes by the US and Israel, Iran has largely maintained its ability to restrict traffic through the strait, and Washington has struggled to provide partners with sufficient air defence munitions, many of which went to Israel.

‘Normative deterrence’

Under the circumstances created by the war, the longstanding reliance on Washington for security in the region has become more strained.

“It’s a fluid, tabula rasa era in the Middle East,” Brett McGurk, a key architect of Middle East policy under former US President Joe Biden, wrote in a social media post.

But analysts note that Friday’s security pact is best understood as an effort to supplement regional security cooperation with other countries and deter Iran.

“These countries are all US partners, and they recognise that there is no framework that can replace the United States,” Yasmine Farouk, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.

Farouk added that it would also be a mistake to see the pact as a step towards greater confrontation with Iran.

She noted that all three countries involved have generally called for mediation and de-escalation since the US and Israel first launched their attacks on Iran in late February.

“What these countries have in common is that they are not seeking regional escalation,” she said, underscoring that the importance of the agreement might be something closer to “normative deterrence”.

Iran, she explained, has emerged from the war hardened and more confident in its ability to use force to advance its goals.

“There is a long-term perspective here on strategic cooperation, not just a deterrent effect.”

The National Enquirer’s parent company paid a Manhattan doorman $30,000 for a story it never published alleging that Donald Trump secretly fathered a child, according to news reports.

Former doorman Dino Sajudin told the story to the National Enquirer in late 2015, when Trump was the top contender for the Republican presidential nomination, the Associated Press and the New Yorker reported early Thursday.

Sajudin, who worked at Trump World Tower near the United Nations headquarters, told the National Enquirer that he’d heard from co-workers that Trump had “knocked up” one of his employees, who gave birth to a girl, according to documents posted on the website of Radar Online, a sister publication of the National Enquirer.

The supermarket tabloid requested a polygraph exam, and the examiner concluded that Sajudin was telling the truth about hearing the story, the documents say.

Four unnamed National Enquirer employees told AP that top editors, despite the polygraph results, ordered them to stop reporting the story.

Sajudin signed a contract with the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc., led by President Trump’s close friend David Pecker. Sajudin, who received the $30,000 in return for giving American Media exclusive rights to the story, agreed to pay a $1-million penalty if he failed to keep quiet, according to the AP and the New Yorker.

“I can confirm that while working at Trump World Tower, I was instructed not to criticize President Trump’s former housekeeper due to a prior relationship she had with President Trump which produced a child,” Sajudin told CNN on Thursday.

It is the second known case of American Media spending money in a way that protected Trump from a potentially harmful story during the 2016 presidential race — a practice known in the tabloid gossip world as “catch and kill.”

Days after Trump won his party’s presidential nomination, American Media paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights to her story of a nine-month affair with Trump, but never published it.

McDougal is suing to void the deal, alleging that her attorney was secretly colluding with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is prized for his loyalty — and willingness to attack the president’s rivals »

The FBI raided Cohen’s office, home and hotel room this week under search warrants reportedly seeking records on McDougal’s nondisclosure deal with American Media.

The search warrant also reportedly sought records on a separate confidentiality agreement that Cohen reached in October 2016 with porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. He set up a shell company that paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about Trump’s alleged 2006 sexual encounter with her.

It’s unclear what crimes federal authorities suspect were committed. But McDougal’s lawsuit charges that American Media’s $150,000 payment to her was an illegal secret donation that federal election law required the Trump campaign to publicly disclose.

Common Cause, a nonpartisan ethics group, has filed complaints with the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission alleging that the payments to McDougal and Daniels were illegal campaign contributions.

On Thursday, Common Cause submitted new complaints alleging the payment to Sajudin, too, was an unlawful attempt to influence the 2016 election by protecting Trump’s candidacy from bad publicity.

“Secret payments to hide affairs may have been commonplace in the president’s previous life as a tabloid figure, but when he became a candidate for the presidency, any new payments to safeguard his candidacy became violations of federal law,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause.

Cohen acknowledged that he discussed Sajudin’s story with the National Enquirer when it was reporting on the allegations, but denied knowing in advance that the tabloid paid the former doorman $30,000, the AP reported.

Neither the AP nor the New Yorker named the woman who was alleged to have had Trump’s child about 30 years ago.

The documents posted by Radar Online indicate that the National Enquirer found in late 2015 that the woman was then living in Queens, and her daughter in Northern California.

Radar Online reported that despite the polygraph results, National Enquirer editors concluded after four weeks of investigating, that Sajudin’s story was false.

“When we realized we would be unable to publish, and other media outlets approached the source about his tale, we released Sajudin from the exclusivity clause that had accompanied his $30,000 payment, freeing him to tell his story to whomever he wanted,” Dylan Howard, the chief content officer at American Media, told Radar Online.

American Media, or AMI, led by longtime Trump friend Pecker, released a statement denying that Cohen or Trump had anything to do with its decision “not to pursue a story about a ‘love child’ that it determined was not credible.”

“The suggestion that David Pecker has ever used company funds to ‘shut down’ this or any investigation is not true,” the statement said. “In addition, AMI and Mr. Pecker emphatically deny any suggestion that there might have been be any ‘partnership’ created which might influence any business ties in regard to AMI. These claims are reckless, unsubstantiated, and false.”

The statement also quoted Howard defending the decision to not publish a story.

“Paying for information has long been a practice of The National Enquirer and to suggest that it has only paid for, and not run, stories about any particular person is absurd,” he said.

The former National Enquirer employees told the AP that the tabloid failed to pursue its standard reporting practices for proving paternity, such as exhaustive stakeouts.

In 2007, when the National Enquirer disclosed that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards had fathered a child with a mistress, it did so in part by rummaging through a dumpster for material to use in a DNA test. Months later, Edwards admitted the story was true.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, was tried on federal charges of using campaign money to hide the pregnant mistress from voters during the campaign. The case ended in an acquittal on one charge and a mistrial on five others.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

6 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from American Media Inc.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with Sajudin’s statement to CNN and background on John Edwards.

12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with new Common Cause complaint.

This article was originally published at 10:55 a.m.

The US president has clashed with Federal Reserve members over his bid to rapidly slash interest rates despite inflation.

The White House has revived its efforts to remove Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a governor at the Federal Reserve, the United States’ central bank.

On Friday, media reports emerged that the administration of President Donald Trump had sent Cook a letter threatening her position at the Federal Reserve.

“You are hereby provided notice that the President is considering removing you from your position,” the letter read.

Signed by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, the letter gave Cook a deadline of three weeks to respond to unproven allegations that she had committed mortgage fraud.

It also warned that the crime she was accused of was punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Her conduct, the letter added, constituted negligence that calls into question her trustworthiness as a Federal Reserve governor.

Trump first unveiled the claims against Cook in August 2025, in a push to fire her from her role.

No other president since the central bank’s founding in 1913 has sought to oust a Federal Reserve governor.

The central bank has historically been insulated from political pressure, and under the law, Federal Reserve governors can only be removed by the president “for cause”. A full term runs 14 years.

Such laws aim is to shield the central bank from making economic decisions based on political pressures.

But Trump has undertaken an aggressive campaign to slash interest rates, which are elevated as a means of combatting inflation.

He has also sought to rid the federal government of appointees aligned with his Democratic predecessors. Cook was nominated in 2022 under President Democrat Joe Biden, Trump’s two-time election rival.

Trump’s claims against Cook centre on the idea that she listed two homes as her primary residence: one in Georgia and the other in Michigan. That could have made her eligible for favourable mortgage rates.

But there is no conclusive evidence so far that Cook sought to deceive lenders, making a successful fraud prosecution unlikely.

In June, a US Supreme Court ruling also blocked Trump’s attempt to fire her, though it did clear the way for the president to fire the heads of other independent agencies.

The letter sent to Cook this week was dated August 5. That same day, Cook spoke at an economic luncheon in Alaska, saying inflation is “too high” and indicating that she is “prepared to act” by raising interest rates, a position shared by others at the Federal Reserve.

Trump has long sparred with the Federal Reserve over interest rates, repeatedly threatening to fire former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for refusing to bow to his demands.

Kevin Warsh, a Trump appointee, took over Powell’s position as chair in May. He has yet to deliver Trump’s wished-for rate cuts, amid stubborn inflation.

“We should have the lowest interest rate in the world,” Trump said after last week’s decision by the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates steady for the fifth consecutive time.

In a statement, Cook’s legal team said “there is no valid cause” for removing her from her position.

“As we did before, we will challenge this latest pretext and preserve her position and the historic role of the Fed,” lawyer Abbe D Lowell said.

A spate of recent polls signals that Democrats are gaining traction in both the races for United States Senate and the governor’s mansion in Texas, turning a reliably Republican state into a battleground ahead of the November midterm elections.

On Friday, the nonpartisan research initiative Texas Pulse, helmed in part by the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service, released its latest public opinion survey into the state’s midterm races.

It found that James Talarico, the Democratic nominee, is now leading the US Senate race by four points, with 47 percent support. His Republican rival, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, trailed at 43 percent.

Those statistics suggested growing momentum for Talarico, who was tied with Paxton in an earlier Texas Pulse poll from June.

Texas Pulse’s findings echo another poll, released on Thursday, that showed Talarico leading Paxton 48 percent to 45 percent. Another 6 percent of respondents said they were undecided.

That poll, conducted by the research firms YouGov and 254 Labs, suggested that Talarico had a significant advantage among undecided and independent voters in the Lone Star State.

An estimated 57 percent of independent voters preferred the Democratic candidate over his Republican competitor, although 20 percent said they remained undecided.

A Fox News poll from late July similarly found that 68 percent of independents are getting behind Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative.

While polls can vary dramatically in the months leading up to an election, the latest survey results are likely to serve as a bellwether for Democratic odds in November’s midterms.

The left-leaning party is hoping to wrest both chambers of Congress from Republican control.

Should Democrats succeed in doing so, their majorities could serve as a bulwark against President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda during the final two years of his presidency.

But analysts believe the Senate may be more difficult to flip than the House of Representatives. While all 435 seats in the House are up for grabs in November, only a third of the Senate is on the ballot.

That makes every Senate race critical to either party maintaining — or retaking — control of the upper chamber.

Cost of living concerns

Texas has long-established bona fides as a Republican stronghold. No Democrat has held statewide office in Texas in more than three decades.

But the open Senate seat in Texas has created an unusually competitive race for Democrats.

Paxton, the Trump-endorsed candidate, defeated the incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary in May.

But the longtime state attorney general has generated concerns among Republicans about his ability to appeal to centrist voters.

Paxton’s career in politics has been riddled with corruption scandals. During his tenure as the state’s attorney general, he has faced allegations of abuse of office and misconduct involving a political donor, the latter of which resulted in his impeachment — though he was not removed from office.

He also faced a separate, nearly decade-long securities fraud case that was dismissed last year. His support for the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and accusations of adultery have also been sources of criticism.

A Texas Public Opinion Research poll, released last week, found Paxton trailing Talarico by five points, 45 percent to 40 percent.

Notably, that poll suggested that the Democrat leads by 34 percentage points among self-described moderates, with 54 percent support to Paxton’s 20 percent.

Experts like Evan Roth Smith, the lead pollster for Texas Public Opinion Research, credit that upward momentum to a solid campaign pitch.

“Talarico is up because he’s running the race every Democrat in this country should be running. When they go on TV, podcasts and talk to reporters, they should focus on affordability. If we can win on affordability, we can win elections,” Smith told Al Jazeera.

Talarico, a former educator with a seminary background, has largely concentrated his campaign on cost-of-living and economic issues, proposing to raise the federal minimum wage.

He also recently unveiled a plan late last month to end tax breaks for tech companies building data centres.

Paxton’s economic agenda, meanwhile, has focused on tax breaks, including a $25,000 tax deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses and a $50,000 deduction for first-time homebuyers.

But Texas’s Senate contest is not the only statewide race generating attention for its competitiveness this election cycle.

The gubernatorial race is also getting tighter between Democratic state Representative Gina Hinojosa and Republican incumbent Greg Abbott. That race is neck and neck.

Abbott’s lead has shrunk from six points to a single point, with Abbott at 46 percent and Hinojosa at 45 percent, according to Friday’s Texas Pulse poll.

The Texas Public Opinion Research poll has Abbott leading by three points, with 45 percent support compared with 42 percent for Hinojosa. A wild card, however, remains in the 10 percent of respondents who identify as undecided.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is seeking to have a federal indictment against him in Minnesota, arguing that he is being illegally targeted for vindictive prosecution.

According to Lemon’s attorneys, U.S. President Donald Trump‘s anger towards the journalist “is well documented, stretching back over a decade.”

The attorneys argued in court filings that Lemon was charged by the U.S. Justice Department “as punishment for his First Amended protected reporting on protests related to Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.”

Lemon is one of several journalists facing charges — along with a number of protestors — for violating the FACE Act, which bars interfering or intimidating people as they exercise their constitutional rights to practice religion. He has pleaded not guilty.

Federal prosecutors have alleged Lemon and another independent reporter took part in a “takeover-style attack” of Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon live-streamed anti-ICE protestors entering the charge on Jan. 18. He said during his live-stream as well as afterwards that he entered the church to report on the protest.

In the court filing, Lemon’s lawyers cited public remarks by Trump, as well as current and former Justice Department officials, that were aimed at Lemon ahead of his indictment in late January.

The Justice Department first tried to file a criminal complaint against Lemon, but a magistrate judge ruled against it, citing a lack of probable cause.

The Justice Department then sought intervention from the chief judge and the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals but was rejected. Prosecutors then secured an indictment from a grand jury. Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 to cover the Grammy Awards. He has said he sought to turn himself in but never heard back from the Justice Department.

Aug. 7 (UPI) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Friday became the second Republican senator to say she’ll vote against Todd Blanche’s nomination for U.S. attorney general, putting his confirmation further at risk.

Murkowski joins Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who said Tuesday that she’ll vote against Blanche’s nomination. Blanche, President Donald Trump‘s pick for the role, is now acting attorney general.

Murkowski questioned if Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, would be an effective check against Trump if he’s confirmed as the leader of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a social media post Friday, she listed various ways the Justice Department has been politicized and referred to the $1,776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund order that Blanche said he’s rescinded earlier this week.

“I am … keenly aware that the department’s nearly $2 billion dollar slush fund — which likely would have rewarded January 6 protestors — is only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage,” Murkowski wrote. “Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds.

“The country needs an attorney general who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that, if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.”

Collins also questioned Blanche’s independence and approval of the anti-weaponization fund — as well as its connected settlement agreement giving Trump and his family protection from tax investigations — in saying she will vote against the nomination.

Also, “more than 1,200 former Department of Justice employees have opposed his nomination, arguing that he has undermined the institution,” Collins said in her statement Tuesday. “For these reasons, I will vote against this nomination.”

With Murkowski and Collins voting against the nomination, Sen.Mitch McConnell still absent from the Senate and all Democrats saying they’ll vote against him, Blanche can’t lose any more votes and be confirmed.

It is uncertain how Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican and frequent Trump critic, will vote. Cassidy has so far declined to comment on the question.

Before Blanche rescinded the $1,776 billion fund order, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn also said they’d vote against him. However, they reversed course on that Monday.

However, Trump said on social media Saturday — before Blanche issued his order on the fund – that if Blanche is not confirmed, he will remain acting attorney general and the fund “would immediately be back on the table,and I will get it done!”

Blanche has been in the acting attorney general role since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April.

Aug. 6 (UPI) — A D.C. judge has dismissed the Lincoln Reflecting Pool vandalism case against U.S. Olympian David Hearn, according to court documents filed Thursday afternoon.

A grand jury charged Hearn with one felony count of destruction of property early last month, alleging that the 67-year-old willfully ripped up a piece of recently installed blue pool sealant from the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump had recently ordered renovated.

The alleged incident involving Hearn occurred June 19 as videos were posted online showing its surface green with algae and blue paint seemingly peeling from the bottom of the pool. Trump claimed vandalism and vowed those responsible would be held to account.

In his order filed Thursday afternoon, Associate Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case but allowed litigation to continue over whether the dismissal should be with or without prejudice.

On July 31, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for the District of Columbia filed a motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, stating that the Department of Interior had provided “less than fulsome information at the outset of this case” that led prosecutors to charge Hearn. After he was charged, the DOI provided documents that “strongly suggest that a rushed and botched installation by AIC, the primary contractor, led to the damage to the lining of the reflecting pool.”

On Aug. 5, Hearn’s lawyers agreed the case should be dismissed but argued that the dismissal should be with prejudice.

“David Hearn is innocent and today’s dismissal reflects that simple fact,” Hearn’s counsel Norm Eisen of Democracy Defenders Fund, Mary Dohrmann of Washington Litigation Group and Steve Levin of Steptoe LLP said in a joint statement Thursday.

“The Department of Justice’s decision to seek an indictment was a miscarriage of justice.”

They said they intend to “vigorously advocate” for the case to be dismissed with prejudice to prevent the government from bringing the case again.

“All other legal options also remain on the table,” they said.

Trump maintains that vandalism was the cause of damage to the reflecting pool, despite the admission by his own Department of Interior. After Pirro filed for dismissal, Trump criticized her online, leading to speculation that the former Fox News host may be the next woman he fires.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” he said online.

“I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM,” he said, before referring to alleged vandalism to grass near the reflecting pool. “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

Trump had ordered the Reflecting Pool be painted “American flag blue” ahead of celebrations marking the United States’ 250th birthday. But within days of the $15 million work being completed on June 6, the pool began experiencing issues, from algae blooms to blue coating peeling off the bottom.

Hearn is a three-time Olympia, having competed in the Barcelona games of 1992, the Atlanta games of 1996 and the Sydney games of 2000. He is a former canoe slalom athlete.

US President Donald Trump expects the conflict with Iran to end “pretty soon”, while Tehran reports that an agreement with Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is “on the verge of being finalised” following a route agreement between both nations.