leader

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (UPI) — Hak Ja Han, leader of the Unification Church, publicly denied she had ever directed aides to undertake illicit influence peddling.

“False claims are being spread that, under my direction, our church provided illegal political funds,” she said Sunday. “I have never instructed any unlawful political solicitation or financial transaction.”

Her remarks came as a special prosecutor deepened investigations into the religious movement’s political ties, bringing renewed attention to allegations involving conservative legislator Kweon Seong-dong.

Han issued her statement as prosecutors examined claims that the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, provided illicit financial support to sitting lawmakers. Kweon, a longtime ally of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, has admitted to meeting Han but denied receiving any funds.

According to indictment documents cited in South Korean media, prosecutors allege that, in October 2022, Kweon warned Yoon Young-ho, then director of the church’s global headquarters, that authorities were preparing to investigate possible illegal overseas gambling linked to the church.

He allegedly told Yoon to prepare for a search, after which church officials reportedly ordered staff members to alter financial records from 2010 to 2013.

Separately, Yonhap News reported that the Unification Church has filed an embezzlement complaint against its former finance chief, who also is the wife of Yoon Young-ho. The complaint accuses her of misappropriating about 2 billion won (approximately $1.4 million) in church funds, part of which allegedly was used to purchase a luxury Graff necklace.

Han’s categorical denial has drawn further attention from prosecutors, who now must determine whether her statement conflicts with testimony or documentary evidence.

WASHINGTON — President Trump greeted Lee Jae Myung, the new president of South Korea, by asserting that a “Purge or Revolution” was taking place there and threatening to not do business with Seoul as he prepared to host the new leader at the White House later Monday.

Trump elaborated later Monday that he was referring to raids on churches and on a U.S. military base by the new South Korean government, which they “probably shouldn’t have done,” the president argued.

“I heard bad things,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday morning. “I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’ll be finding out.”

The warning shot previewed a potentially hostile confrontation later Monday as Lee, the liberal leader and longtime critic of Seoul’s conservative establishment, sits down with Trump to discuss Seoul and Washington’s recent trade agreement and continued defense cooperation. Lee leads a nation that has been in a state of political turmoil for the last several months after its former leader, the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, briefly imposed martial law last December which eventually led to his stunning ouster from office.

Trump did not identify specific raids. But earlier this month, South Korean police conducted a raid on a church led by a conservative activist pastor whom authorities allege is connected to a pro-Yoon protest in January that turned violent, according to Yonhap news agency. A special prosecutor’s team that is investigating corruption allegations against Yoon’s wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, also raided the facilities of the Unification Church after allegations that one of its officials gave Kim luxury goods.

Meanwhile, Osan Air Base, which is jointly operated by the United States and South Korea, was also the target of a raid last month by investigators looking into how Yoon’s activation of martial law transpired, according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. South Korean officials have insisted the raid was in the areas controlled by Seoul.

“WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump posted on social media Monday morning. “I am seeing the new President today at the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”

Yoon, who was elected to a five-year term in 2022, was considered more ideologically aligned with Trump and had even taken up golfing again after the U.S. president was reelected last November to try to forge a bond with him.

The liberal Lee, an outspoken critic of Seoul’s conservative establishment who had narrowly lost to Yoon in that 2022 election, led the South Korean parliament’s efforts to overturn Yoon’s martial law decree while impeaching him. The nation’s Constitutional Court formally dismissed Yoon in April.

Before Trump’s Truth Social post Monday morning, the first in-person meeting between Trump and Lee had been expected to help flesh out details of a July trade deal between the two countries that has Seoul investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. The agreement set tariffs on South Korean goods at 15% after Trump threatened rates as high as 25%.

Trump declared at the time that South Korea would be “completely OPEN TO TRADE” with the U.S. and accept goods such as cars and agricultural products. Automobiles are South Korea’s top export to the U.S.

Seoul has one of the largest trade surpluses among Washington’s NATO and Indo-Pacific allies, and countries where the U.S. holds a trade deficit has drawn particular ire from Trump, who wants to eliminate such trade imbalances.

Lee’s office said in announcing the visit that the two leaders plan to discuss cooperating on key manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, batteries and shipbuilding. The latter has been a particular area of focus for the U.S. president.

On defense, one potential topic is the continued presence of U.S. troops in South Korea and concerns in Seoul that the U.S. will seek higher payments in return.

Ahead of his visit to Washington, Lee traveled to Tokyo for his first bilateral visit as president in a hugely symbolic trip for the two nations that hold longstanding historical wounds. The summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was interpreted by analysts as a way to show unity and potential leverage as Japan and South Korea face new challenges from the Trump administration.

Lee was the first South Korean president to choose Japan for the inaugural bilateral visit since the two nations normalized ties in 1965.

Elected in June, Lee was a former child laborer with an arm deformity who rose his way through South Korea’s political ranks to lead the liberal Democratic Party and win the presidency after multiple attempts.

Lee faced an assassination attempt in January 2024, when he was stabbed in the neck by a man saying he wanted Lee’s autograph and later told investigators that he intended to kill the politician.

Lee arrived in the U.S. on Sunday and will leave Tuesday. He headlined a dinner Sunday evening with roughly 200 local Korean-Americans in downtown Washington on Sunday night.

Kim writes for the Associated Press.

As the Democratic Party searches for direction in the post-2024 landscape, its leaders seem bent on alienating their own base over Gaza. This is not a matter of nuance or tactical positioning; it’s a profound moral and political miscalculation.

That failure is on vivid display in the decision by House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Redlands) to help lead a delegation of mostly freshman Democratic representatives recently to Israel. The trip included meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption in Israel and is the subject of arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Polling makes the disconnect impossible to ignore. In July, Gallup found that just 8% of Democrats approve of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, with disapproval overwhelming. Pew Research Center reported in April that 69% of Democrats now hold an unfavorable view of Israel — a striking shift from just a few years ago. And Data for Progress has consistently found supermajority Democratic support for a permanent ceasefire; in May 2024, 83% of Democrats backed a permanent ceasefire, and in a June 12, 2024, poll a majority of Democrats said they believed Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza.

Aguilar’s role makes this especially galling. He isn’t a backbencher; he’s a high-ranking member of the Democratic Party leadership. That gives him a particular responsibility to model principled conduct for newer members. Instead, he’s showing them the wrong lesson: that obedience to the donor class matters more than representing constituents. The point is underscored by his fundraising: OpenSecrets reports Aguilar received about $678,000 from donors categorized as “Pro-Israel” in the 2023–24 cycle.

The mechanics of that influence are no mystery. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and allied pro-Israel PACs reward loyalty with torrents of campaign cash and punish dissent with lavishly funded primary challenges. Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush — both outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza — have been textbook examples: Bowman was unseated after record outside spending flooded his race, and Bush faced a barrage of super-PAC money that ultimately toppled her. The incentive structure is clear: Toe the line and your coffers swell; cross it and a financial juggernaut rolls over you.

There is a political price for complying with this pressure, however. The Institute for Middle East Understanding, using YouGov, found that among voters who backed Joe Biden in 2020 but chose someone else in 2024 “ending Israel’s violence in Gaza” was the top issue for 29% nationally — ahead of the economy — and 20% in battleground states. Those results point to a straightforward conclusion: Ignoring Democratic voters on Gaza depresses enthusiasm and peels away enough support to matter in close races.

Gaza is politically damaging not only because of the issue itself — though the moral stakes could hardly be higher — but also because it has become a measure of where leaders’ loyalties lie. Voters read it as a test of whether their representatives will stand with the people who elected them or with wealthy donors and foreign lobbies. Fail that test and many will assume you might betray them on other critical issues in the future.

The Democratic leadership’s unwillingness to adapt is not just bad politics; it’s a betrayal of basic democratic principles. Rank-and-file Democrats overwhelmingly want an end to the carnage, an end to unconditional military aid to Israel, and policies rooted in human rights and international law. Yet too many leaders seem more concerned with keeping favor in donor circles than with honoring the public’s will.

If Democrats hope to retain their coalition, they need to realign policy with their voters’ values: call for a permanent ceasefire; condition U.S. military assistance on compliance with international law; and replace photo-op delegations with diplomacy that centers on justice and accountability.

Until then, every AIPAC-sponsored trip led by a party leader will read like a declaration of priorities — and a reminder of the price the party will continue to pay at the ballot box.

George Bisharat is a professor emeritus at UC Law San Francisco and a longtime commentator on U.S. policy toward the Middle East.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra avoided a likely prison term Friday after his royal defamation case was dismissed.

Shinawatra was indicted last year on charges he defied the country’s lese majeste law, which prohibits anyone from insulting the Thai monarchy.

He was accused by a general from the military regime that took power in 2014, in a coup that deposed the prime minister at that time, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Shinawatra allegedly disrespected the monarchy in an interview he gave in 2015 to a South Korean newspaper in which he said people connected to the “palace” helped overthrow Yingluck.

Shinawatra was living in Dubai at the time in a self-imposed exile, and out of reach for prosecution. The 76-year-old could have seen as many as 15 years in prison if found guilty.

The charges against Shinawatra, who was elected prime minister in 2001 but removed himself in a 2006 coup, were widely believed to be politicized due to his hold on power despite being absent.

Even while he remained outside Thailand’s borders, political parties tied to Shinawatra won national elections until 2023.

It was then he returned and was indicted over the defamation charges in June of 2024. He was also charged with violating Thailand’s Computer Crime Act because the interview in question ran online, but that was also dismissed Friday.

Acquittals in Thai lese majeste cases are rare, as 87% lead to convictions.

Shinawatra will next face a judge in September, as he was hospitalized upon returning to Thailand and is accused of using that stay to avoid being imprisoned.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says in Yerevan that ‘governance in the Caucasus region must remain Caucasian’.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that a planned corridor linking Azerbaijan with its exclave would be under Armenian control, days after Iran said it would block the project included in a United States-brokered peace accord that puts a potential Washington presence on its doorstep.

“Roads passing through Armenia will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Armenia, and security will be provided by Armenia, not by any third country,” Pashinyan said at a meeting with Pezeshkian in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Tuesday. He added that the corridor would open new economic perspectives between the two countries, and could offer a rail route from Iran to the Black Sea coast through Armenia.

The land corridor, dubbed the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), is part of a deal signed this month in Washington between former foes Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Under the agreement, the US will hold development rights for the proposed route, which would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave bordering Iran and Turkey.

“Governance in the Caucasus region must remain Caucasian – outsourcing the resolution of Caucasus issues to extra-regional forces will complicate it,” Pezeshkian said during his visit on Tuesday. “Iran’s position has always been to reject any changes to international borders in the Caucasus region.”

Iran has long opposed the planned transit route, also known as the Zangezur corridor, fearing it would cut the country off from Armenia and the rest of the Caucasus while bringing potentially hostile foreign forces close to its borders.

Since the deal was signed on August 8, Iranian officials have stepped up warnings to Armenia, saying the project could be part of a US ploy “to pursue hegemonic goals in the Caucasus region”.

The proposed corridor has been hailed as beneficial by other countries in the region, including Russia, with which Iran has a strategic alliance alongside Armenia.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan that had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan Baku took control of the territory in a military operation in 2023, leading to an exodus of the ethnic Armenian population.

Armenia last year agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what Baku described as a “long-awaited historic event”.

LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, more than three years after Moscow launched its invasion, as the two leaders prepared for a pivotal U.S.–Russia summit Friday in Alaska.

Following a meeting Thursday with top government officials on the summit, Putin said in a short video released by the Kremlin that the Trump administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved.”

Putin also suggested that “long-term conditions of peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” could be reached under an agreement with the U.S. on nuclear arms control.

In Washington, Trump said there was a 25% chance that the summit would fail, but he also floated the idea that, if the meeting succeeds, he could bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Alaska for a subsequent, three-way meeting.

In a radio interview with Fox News, Trump also said he might be willing to stay in Alaska longer, depending on what happens with Putin.

Meanwhile, Zelensky and other European leaders worked to ensure their interests are taken into account when Trump and Putin meet in Anchorage.

Uncertainty for Europe

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Zelensky to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before the critical Trump-Putin meeting. The two embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments, and Zelensky departed about an hour later.

Zelensky’s trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with Trump and the leaders of several European countries. Those leaders said that Trump had assured them that he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Putin.

Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.

While some European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive, uncertainty remained over how the U.S. leader — whose rhetoric toward both Zelensky and Putin has evolved dramatically since retaking office this year — would conduct negotiations in the absence of any other interested parties.

Both Zelensky and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov tamped down expectations for any breakthroughs from the Friday summit, saying there were no plans to sign documents and that it would be a “big mistake” to predict the results of the negotiations, according to Russian news outlet Interfax.

The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin would begin at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations. Then talks will continue over “a working breakfast.” A joint news conference will follow.

Trump contradicted the Kremlin, saying that no decisions have been made about holding a news conference with Putin. The uncertainty reflects just how much about the summit, including its schedule, remains unsettled.

Ukraine’s territorial integrity

Starmer said Wednesday that the Alaska summit could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.

During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.

“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said.

Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit military personnel.

Countries in the coalition, which includes France and the U.K., have been trying for months to secure U.S. security backing, should it be required. Following Wednesday’s virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”

“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.

Trump did not reference any U.S. security commitments during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Some Ukrainians are skeptical

With another high-level meeting on their country’s future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism about the summit’s prospects.

Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made toward ending the war.

“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”

Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said Ukraine’s priority now should be saving the lives of its military service members, even at the expense of territorial concessions.

“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless.”

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes

Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine had secured the release of 84 people from Russian captivity, including both soldiers and civilians. Those freed included people held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who had defended the now Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Zelensky wrote on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that it too had received 84 soldiers as part of a prisoner exchange.

In other developments, Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community wounded a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, near the border with Ukraine, where 13 civilians were wounded, according to acting governor of the region, Yuri Slyusar. Two of the wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, Slyusar said.

Pylas and Spike write for the Associated Press. Spike reported from Budapest, Hungary. AP writers Lorne Cook in Brussels; Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England; Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

Ron Carey, the reformist Teamsters president who was ousted from the union in a fund-raising scandal five years ago, was acquitted Friday of lying to investigators during several corruption probes.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Carey, 65, not guilty of seven counts of perjury. Each count carried a maximum five-year sentence.

“I’m just so delighted,” Carey told reporters outside the courtroom. “It obviously opens lots of doors and possibilities, which I’ll be looking at.”

A former truck driver who ran the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters union for five years, Carey narrowly won reelection against James P. Hoffa in 1996. But the vote was invalidated when it was learned that aides laundered nearly $1 million in contributions to Carey’s campaign. Hoffa handily beat Carey in a new election.

Carey, who had pledged to continue efforts to clean up the scandal-plagued union, told investigators at the time that he had no knowledge of the scheme. He said it was orchestrated by professional campaign consultants.

During the trial, Assistant U.S. Atty. Deborah Landis said Carey knew about the plan, did nothing to stop it and then lied about it to numerous federal and union investigators over a six-month period.

The aides contributed $885,000 in Teamsters funds to several political action organizations. In turn, wealthy donors contributed similar amounts to Carey’s campaign. Federal law prohibits the use of union funds to promote the candidacy of any individual.

The union, which was placed under federal trusteeship long before the Carey presidency, still is monitored by the government.

Matt Noyes of the Assn. for Union Democracy, a New York-based civil rights group that has monitored the Teamsters and other corruption-plagued unions, said he was not surprised by the acquittal. The prosecution “seemed a little gratuitous,” he said, because Carey already had been removed from the union and the architects of the scheme had been found guilty and were sentenced.

Teamsters spokesman Bret Caldwell said the acquittal would not change the union’s position toward Carey. “He’s banned from the union and that’s not changing.”

Caldwell also said the union planned to continue pursuing a civil racketeering case against Carey. That effort seeks the return of the $885,000. The case was dismissed by a federal judge two weeks ago, but Caldwell said the union plans to appeal the dismissal as well as file a new, rewritten case. “Ron Carey’s not off the hook yet,” he said.

Friday’s acquittal came as Teamsters members began receiving mail-in ballots for the latest union election. Hoffa is running for reelection against Tom Leedham, who ran as a reformer in Carey’s place during the rematch five years ago. Members have until mid-November to return ballots.

Leedham supporters said the acquittal could help their campaign, because Leedham and Carey espouse similar reforms and pull from the same supporters. “It really undercuts a lot of what Hoffa has said” about Carey, said Ken Paff, national coordinator of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. “Whatever mistakes Carey made–including allowing unsavory consultants into his campaign–his legacy is one of reform, power and hope for Teamsters.”

But Hoffa campaign spokesman Rich Leebove disputed that. “We don’t think it will have any impact, because Ron Carey’s not on the ballot,” he said. “This is an issue from five years ago, and most people have moved on. This election’s going to be decided on leadership. . . . We feel comfortable. Leedham’s support is less now than it was three years ago.”

Succes Masra denies the charges against him, which relate to inter-communal clashes that left dozens dead in May.

Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for disseminating racist and xenophobic messages that incited violence.

Defence lawyer Kadjilembay Francis told reporters following Saturday’s ruling at a court in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, that Masra would appeal his sentence.

“He has just been subjected to ignominy and unworthy humiliation,” Francis said.

Masra, who was prime minister between January and May last year, is the head of the Transformers party and a sharp critic of Mahamat Deby, Chad’s current president.

He was accused alongside 67 co-defendants, mostly from the same Ngambaye ethnic group, of causing a clash between herders and farmers in May in Logone Occidental, in the southwest of the central African country. The fighting left 35 people dead and six others injured.

Masra has denied the charges against him, which include hate speech, xenophobia and having incited a massacre.

Before leaving the courtroom on Saturday, he gave a message to his supporters: “Stand firm.” Activists with his party said they would put out a “special message” later in the day.

The Ngambaye ethnic group enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south, whose members feel marginalised by the largely Muslim-dominated authorities in N’Djamena.

Masra left Chad after a bloody crackdown on his followers in 2022, only returning under an amnesty agreed in 2024.

He faced off against Deby in that year’s presidential election, which Deby won with more than 61 percent support.

But Masra did not accept the results, claiming that the vote was rigged. He later agreed to serve as premier after signing a reconciliation deal with Deby.

Masra has strongly opposed the military rulers who came to power in Chad in April 2021, after the death of Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had led the country for 30 years.

Deby took power in 2021 and legitimised his presidency with a parliamentary election earlier this year, which was opposed by Masra and his party.

Case has raised concerns among government critics about a crackdown ahead of Uganda’s national election early next year.

A Ugandan judge has refused to grant bail to veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, who has been in jail for nearly nine months on treason charges.

Judge Emmanuel Baguma said on Friday that the 180-day maximum period before mandatory bail is granted only began when he was remanded in the civilian court on February 21, which means he falls short by 12 days to meet the requirements to secure bail.

His lawyers argued he should be automatically released on bail because he has spent more than 180 days in jail without his trial starting.

The case has raised concerns among government critics, including opposition leader Bobi Wine and rights groups, about a crackdown ahead of Uganda’s national election early next year in which President Yoweri Museveni, 80, is seeking re-election.

The government denies targeting opposition figures and says all those who have been detained have committed crimes.

Four elections lost

A former ally and personal physician of Museveni, Besigye has stood against the incumbent leader in four elections.

He lost all the elections but rejected the results and alleged fraud and voter intimidation. Besigye has not said whether he is running again.

Besigye has been arrested numerous times over the years, including in 2022 on charges of inciting violence.

Besigye, who denies any wrongdoing, was forcefully returned to Uganda from neighbouring Kenya in November last year, and initially charged in a military tribunal, before his case was transferred to a civilian court.

WASHINGTON — In a warning to Russia, President Donald Trump said Friday he’s ordering the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines “based on the highly provocative statements” of the country’s former president Dmitry Medvedev.

Trump posted on his social media site that based on the “highly provocative statements” from Medvedev he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.”

The president added, “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what impact Trump’s order would have on U.S. nuclear subs, which are routinely on patrol in the world’s hotspots, but it comes at a delicate moment in the Trump administration’s relations with Moscow.

Trump has said that special envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Russia to push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine and has threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made. He cut his 50-day deadline for action to 10 days, with that window set to expire next week.

The post about the sub repositioning came after Trump, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, had posted that Medvedev was a “failed former President of Russia” and warned him to “watch his words.” Medvedev responded hours later by writing, “Russia is right on everything and will continue to go its own way.”

Medvedev was president from 2008 to 2012 while Putin was barred from seeking a second consecutive term but stepped aside to let him run again. Now deputy chairman of Russia’s National Security Council, which Putin chairs, Medvedev has been known for his provocative and inflammatory statements since the start of the war in 2022, a U-turn from his presidency, when he was seen as liberal and progressive.

He has frequently wielded nuclear threats and lobbed insults at Western leaders on social media. Some observers have argued that with his extravagant rhetoric, Medvedev is seeking to score political points with Putin and Russian military hawks.

Trump and Medvedev have gotten into online spats before.

On July 15, after Trump announced plans to supply Ukraine with more weapons via its NATO allies and threatened additional tariffs against Moscow, Medvedev posted, “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”

Earlier this week, he wrote, “Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10” and added, “He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”

Weissert writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

July 29 (UPI) — The State Department has increased to $10 million its reward for information leading to the identification or location of the leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Sa’ad bin Atef al-Awlaki is the man the State Department says leads AQAP and has called for attacks against the United States and its allies.

Al-Awlaki also has led AQAP attacks against the United States and kidnapped Americans and other Westerners in Yemen in his prior role as the amir of the Shabwah province in Yemen, according to a State Department news release issued on Tuesday.

The State Department previously offered a $6 million reward for information identifying or locating al-Awlaki’s whereabouts via the Rewards for Justice program.

Al-Awlaki also goes by the names Sa’d Muhammad Atif and Jalaal al-Sa-idi and was born in Yemen sometime between 1978 and 1983.

He stands 5’6″ and has a thin build, according to the State Department.

The State Department also is offering rewards of $5 million and $4 million, respectively, for information leading to the identification or location of Ibrahim al-Banna and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi.

Al-Banna and al-Qosi are part of the leadership team that assists al-Awlaki in his role as the leader of AQAP.

Anyone with information on al-Awlaki, al-Banna or al-Qosi can contact the Rewards for Justice office via Telegram, Signal or WhatsApp at +1202-702-7843.

Those using a Tor browser also can contact the Rewards for Justice’s Tor-based tipline at he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion.

Congress created the Rewards for Justice program in 1984, which is administered by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

The program offers rewards for information that helps protect American lives, U.S. interests and national security.

Since its inception, Rewards for Justice has paid out more than $250 million in rewards to more than 125 people who provided information that helped protect U.S. citizens and end threats to national security.

The “Avatar: Fire and Ash” trailer is finally here.

The third installment in James Cameron’s “Avatar” series returns to Pandora and introduces a new Na’vi tribe: the Mangkwan Clan, also known as the Ash People, led by the fierce Varang (Oona Chaplin).

While not much is known about the Mangkwan Clan and its leader, the trailer offers a first look at their ashen home, destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The footage positions Varang, who wears a red headdress and can manipulate fire, as an adversary to Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and her family. It’s a stark departure from 2022’s “The Way of Water,” which took viewers underwater into the world of the Metkayina Clan.

The trailer also shows a tense exchange between Varang and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver): “Your goddess has no dominion here,” the fiery leader, donning a red and black headdress, says.

“Varang is the leader of a people who have gone through an incredible hardship. She’s hardened by that,” Cameron told Empire in an interview published in January. “She will do anything for them, even things that we would consider to be evil.”

In addition to the Ash People, the trailer includes a look at the Wind Traders, a nomadic Na’vi clan that travels aboard airborne ships drawn by massive jellyfish-like creatures. It also teases that the film will see Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) being captured by humans.

Also returning to the ensemble are Kate Winslet (Ronal) and Jack Champion (Spider). In addition to Chaplin, David Thewlis joins the cast as Peylak, the chief of the Wind Traders.

The trailer was first unveiled at CinemaCon in April and was launched exclusively in theaters ahead of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which opened Thursday.

“Fire and Ash” comes three years after “Way of Water” and 16 years after the original film. The first two movies were nominated for best picture at the Oscars and “Way of Water” was the highest-grossing film of 2022. But Cameron has hinted that the third installment may be surprising to fans of its predecessors.

“One thing we wanted to do in this film is not be black-and-white simplistic,” he told Empire. “We’re trying to evolve beyond the ‘all humans are bad, all Na’vi are good’ paradigm.”

“Fire and Ash” hits theaters Dec. 19. The fourth and fifth installments are expected Dec. 21, 2029, and Dec. 19, 2031, respectively.

Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani and two of his sons affiliated to the group were killed in a raid, the US military says

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces have killed a senior ISIL (ISIS) leader and his two sons affiliated to the group in Syria’s Aleppo region, the US military has said.

A post on X on Friday said, “Early this morning in al Bab, Aleppo Governate, Syria, CENTCOM Forces conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani.”

“These ISIS individuals posed a threat to US and Coalition Forces, as well as the new Syrian Government, ” it added.

“We will continue to relentlessly pursue ISIS terrorists wherever they are. ISIS terrorists are not safe where they sleep, where they operate, and where they hide. Alongside our partners and allies, U.S. Central Command is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS terrorists that threaten the region, our allies, and our homeland,” General Michael Erik Kurilla, US CENTCOM commander, said.

In late May, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed group’s first strike at government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to analysts.

In a statement regarding that attack, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a “vehicle of the apostate regime” in southern Syria.

ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus led by President Ahemd al-Sharaa as illegitimate, has so far concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north.

The fledgling Syrian government has had to contend with Israeli bombardment and incursions into its territory since al-Assad’s overthrow, as well as the eruption of sustained sectarian violence in the southern city of Suwayda in recent weeks.

LONDON — Former British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday he is forming a new left-leaning political party to advocate “mass redistribution of wealth and power” and take on his former colleagues at the ballot box.

The new formation has a website — yourparty.uk — but does not yet have a name.

“It’s your party,” Corbyn said. “We’re going to decide [a name] when we’ve had all the responses, and so far the response rate has been massive.”

Corbyn said he hoped the new party would have its inaugural conference in the fall.

Corbyn, 76, led Labor to election defeats in 2017 and 2019, but the veteran socialist campaigner remains popular with many grassroots supporters. and the new party has the potential to further fragment British politics. The long-dominant Labor and Conservative parties now have challengers on both left and right, including the environmentalist Green Party and hard-right Reform UK.

Plans for a new party emerged earlier this month when lawmaker Zarah Sultana, who has been suspended from Labor for voting against the government, said she would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with Corbyn.

At the time, Corbyn did not confirm the news.

On Thursday he denied the party launch had been messy, saying the process was “democratic, it’s grassroots and it’s open.”

A longtime supporter of the Palestinians and critic of Israel, Corbyn was suspended from Labor in 2020 after Britain’s equalities watchdog found anti-Jewish prejudice had been allowed to spread within Labor while he was leader.

He was suspended after failing to fully accept the findings¸ claiming opponents had exaggerated the scale of antisemitism in Labor for “political reasons.”

Corbyn was reelected to Parliament last year as an independent.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer succeeded Corbyn as Labor leader in 2020 and dragged the party back toward the political center ground. He dropped Corbyn’s opposition to Britain’s nuclear weapons, strongly backed sending weapons to Ukraine and stressed the party’s commitment to balancing the books.

Starmer won a landslide election victory a year ago, but has struggled to maintain unity among Labor lawmakers as the government struggles to get a sluggish economy growing and invest in overstretched public services. He has been forced into a series of U-turns by his own lawmakers, including one on welfare reform that left his authority severely dented.

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.

New party set to challenge Labour from the left as government’s popularity wanes over welfare policy, war in Gaza.

United Kingdom lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn has announced he is launching a new political party to run to the left of the Labour party that he previously led.

On Thursday, Corbyn and Member of Parliament Zarah Sultana, who both became independents after leaving Labour, announced the new party, which did not yet have an officially registered name but was temporarily dubbed “Your Party” on its website.

In a joint statement, they said it was “time for a new kind of political party” focused on righting social injustices and combating a “rigged” system.

“The system is rigged when the government says there is no money for the poor, but billions for war,” the statement said, envisioning a party “rooted in our communities, trade unions and social movements”.

It further laid out broad policy objectives, including “mass redistribution of wealth and power” and a commitment to a  “free and independent Palestine”.

It’s time for a new kind of political party – one that belongs to you.

Sign up at https://t.co/0bhBHhWvVa. pic.twitter.com/UwjHBf4nZQ

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 24, 2025

The statement called on supporters to sign up to “be part of the founding process”, adding that an inaugural conference would be held to determine the party’s structure of leadership, direction and policies.

While the timeline of the party’s launch was not immediately clear, the announcement comes when Labour leader Keir Starmer has been haemorrhaging support after his party ended nearly two decades of Conservative rule in last year’s July general election.

Starmer has faced particular criticism for failing to unify his party behind signature legislation seeking to pare down the country’s welfare spending. In the end, Starmer passed a softened version of the bill, later suspending a handful of the Labour rebels who led opposition to the proposed cuts.

Starmer has also faced pressure to more firmly reset ties with Israel amid its war on Gaza and to recognise a Palestinian state.

The 76-year-old Corbyn, who took control of the opposition Labour party in 2015, had stepped down as leader after a trouncing by the Conservatives in the 2019 general election.

The Labour party under Starmer then suspended Corbyn in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the findings of a probe into claims that anti-Semitism had become rampant within Labour’s ranks under his leadership.

Corbyn maintained that anti-Semitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

The avowed socialist, who was one of the most left-wing Labour party leaders in decades, ran as an independent in last year’s general election, winning his Islington North seat handily.

Sultana, meanwhile, has been a member of parliament for six years, and had been a member of Labour’s young, left-leaning flank.

She was also suspended from the party in 2024, after she broke from the party in her opposition to a cap on benefits for parents with more than two children.

In a post on X on Thursday, Sultana addressed the naming of the new party, which has generated some confusion.

“It’s not called Your Party!” she wrote.

TOKYO — Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday vowed to remain in power to oversee the implementation of a new Japan-U.S. tariff agreement, despite media speculation and growing calls for him to resign after a historic defeat of his governing party.

Ishiba met with heavyweights from his Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, and former Prime Ministers Taro Aso, Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga at party headquarters.

He told reporters afterward that they didn’t discuss his resignation or a new party leadership contest, but only the election results, voters’ dissatisfaction and the urgent need to avoid party discord.

Despite his business-as-usual demeanor, Ishiba is under increasing pressure to bow out after the LDP and junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in Sunday’s election in the 248-member upper house, the smaller and less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament, shaking his grip on power.

It came after a loss in the more powerful lower house in October, and so his coalition now lacks a majority in both houses of parliament, making it even more difficult for his government to pass policies and worsening Japan’s political instability.

Ishiba says he intends to stay on to tackle pressing challenges, including tariff talks with the U.S., so as not to create a political vacuum despite calls from inside and outside his party for a quick resignation.

Ishiba “keeps saying he is staying on. What was the public’s verdict in the election all about?” said Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the surging Democratic Party for the People, or DPP.

At the LDP, a group of younger lawmakers led by Yasutaka Nakasone started a petition drive seeking Ishiba’s early resignation and renewal of party leadership.

“We all have a sense of crisis and think the election results were ultimatum from the voters,” he said.

Japanese media reported that Ishiba is expected to soon announce plans to step down in August.

The conservative Yomiuri newspaper said in an extra edition on Wednesday that Ishiba had decided to announce his resignation by the end of July after receiving a detailed report from his chief trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, on the impact of the U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy, paving the way for a new party leader.

Ishiba denied the report and said that he wants to focus on the U.S. trade deal, which covers more than 4,000 goods affecting many Japanese producers and industries. He welcomed the new agreement, which places tariffs at 15% on Japanese cars and other goods imported into the U.S. from Japan, down from the initial 25%.

Still, local media are already speculating about possible successors. Among them are ultraconservative former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, who lost to Ishiba in September. Another conservative ex-minister, Takayuki Kobayashi, and Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are also seen as potential challengers.

In Sunday’s election, voters frustrated with price increases exceeding the pace of wage hikes, especially younger people who have long felt ignored by the ruling government’s focus on senior voters, rapidly turned to the emerging conservative DPP and right-wing populist Sanseito party.

None of the opposition parties have shown interest in forming a full-fledged alliance with the governing coalition, but they have said they are open to cooperating on policy.

People expressed mixed reaction to Ishiba, as his days seem to be numbered.

Kentaro Nakamura, 53, said that he thought it’s time for Ishiba to go, because he lacked consistency and did poorly in the election.

“The (election) result was so bad and I thought it would not be appropriate for him to stay on,” Nakamura said. “I thought it was just a matter of time.”

But Isamu Kawana, a Tokyo resident in his 70s, was more sympathetic and said if it wasn’t Ishiba who was elected prime minister last year, the result would have been the same.

“I think he got the short end of the stick,” Kawana said.

Yamaguchi writes for the Associated Press. Reeno Hashimoto contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Trump welcomed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday at the White House, as the two countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region.

Marcos, who met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, is the first Southeast Asian leader to hold talks with Trump in his second term.

Marcos’ three-day visit shows the importance of the alliance between the treaty partners when China is increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal.

As the two leaders sat in the Oval Office in front of reporters on Tuesday, Trump said they would be talking about “war and peace” and trade.

“We’re very close to finishing a trade deal, big trade deal, actually,” Trump said.

Marcos spoke warmly of the relationship between their two nations and said, “This has evolved into as important a relationship as is possible to have.”

Trump, as he does in many of his appearances, veered off topic as he fielded questions from reporters.

In response to a question about his Justice Department’s decision to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Trump launched into a long answer repeating falsehoods about his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and the Russia investigation during his first term, along with comments about targeting his political adversaries, including former President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“After what they did to me, whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” Trump said, with Marcos sitting nearby.

During the two leaders’ meeting before news cameras, they didn’t reveal details or hang-ups of any possible deal, but Trump called Marcos a “tough negotiator.”

When asked by a reporter how he plans to balance his country’s relationships between the U.S. and China, Marcos said there was no need to balance “because our foreign policy is an independent one.”

“Our strongest partner has always been the United States,” he said.

Washington sees Beijing, the world’s No. 2 economy, as its biggest competitor, and consecutive presidential administrations have sought to shift U.S. military and economic focus to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to counter China. Trump, like others before him, has been distracted by efforts to broker peace in a range of conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza.

On Tuesday, when asked about the U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: “Whatever cooperation the U.S. and the Philippines have, it should not target or harm any third party, still less incite confrontation and heighten tensions in the region.”

Tariffs also are expected to be on the agenda. Trump has threatened to impose 20% tariffs on Filipino goods on Aug. 1 unless the two sides can strike a deal.

On Sunday, before heading to Washington, Marcos said he intended to tell Trump and his administration “that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of,” according to his office.

Manila is open to offering zero tariffs on some U.S. goods to strike a deal with Trump, finance chief Ralph Recto told local journalists.

The White House said ahead of the meeting that Trump would discuss with Marcos the shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific.

Before a meeting with Marcos at the Pentagon, Hegseth reiterated America’s commitment to “achieving peace through strength” in the region.

Marcos, whose country is one of the oldest U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific region, told Hegseth that the assurance to come to each other’s mutual defense “continues to be the cornerstone of that relationship, especially when it comes to defense and security cooperation.”

He said the cooperation has deepened since Hegseth’s March visit to Manila, including joint exercises and U.S. support in modernizing the Philippines’ armed forces. Marcos thanked the U.S. for support “that we need in the face of the threats that we, our country, is facing.”

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, a busy shipping passage for global trade.

The Chinese coast guard has repeatedly used water cannons to hit Filipino boats in the South China Sea. China accused those vessels of entering the waters illegally or encroaching on its territory.

Hegseth told a security forum in Singapore in May that China poses a threat and the U.S. is “reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China.”

During Marcos’ meeting Monday with Rubio, the two reaffirmed the alliance “to maintain peace and stability” in the region and discussed closer economic ties, including boosting supply chains, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

The U.S. has endeavored to keep communication open with Beijing. Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met this month on the sidelines of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They agreed to explore “areas of potential cooperation” and stressed the importance of managing differences.

Tang and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

July 21 (UPI) — Notorious Ecuadorian gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar has been extradited to the United States, where he is expected to make his first court appearance on Monday.

President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador confirmed late Sunday that Macias, leader of the Los Choneros gang and who is also known as Fito, has arrived in the United States.

“Goodbye forever, Fito,” Noboa said in a statement to social media. “Fito is now in the USA.”

The U.S. government has yet to confirm Macias’ extradition.

Macias was recaptured in late June amid a controversial crackdown on gang violence in the country, conducted by Noboa using recently acquired powers granted to him by the National Assembly to combat internal armed conflict.

Macias was serving a 34-year sentence for a slew of crimes, including murder, when he escaped from Guayaquil’s regional prison in January, as gang violence was erupting in prisons across the nation.

In response to the violence, Noboa declared the country was in the midst of an “internal armed conflict” and launched a nationwide law enforcement effort targeting drug cartels and gangs after declaring them terrorists.

Macias was then sanctioned by the U.S. State Department in February and charged in a seven-count indictment with drug trafficking-related offenses in Brooklyn, N.Y., in April.

If convicted in the United States, he faces up to life in prison.

Noboa described Macias’ extradition as validation of his crackdown that has received international criticism from human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, over concerns that the new powers pose to the rights of Ecuadorians.

“This is thanks to you, Ecuadorians, who said yes to the referendum. I eagerly await the creative theories that will claim otherwise,” he said.

Six months into President Trump’s second term, his predilection for picking on California has never been on fuller display, turning the state broadly and Los Angeles specifically into key battlegrounds for his right-wing agenda.

There are chaotic immigration raids occurring across the state and military troops on L.A. streets. The administration has sued the state or city over sanctuary policies, transgender athletes and the price of eggs. The state has sued the administration more than 30 times, including over funding cuts, voting restrictions and the undoing of birthright citizenship.

Federal officials are investigating L.A. County’s gun permitting policies, and have sought to overturn a host of education, health and environmental regulations. They have talked not only of enforcing federal laws for the benefit of California residents, but of showing up in full force — soldiers and all — to wrench control from the state’s elected leaders.

Kristi Noem has lunch with National Guard troops at the Federal Building on Wilshire Boulevard on May 5 in Los Angeles.

(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)

“We are not going away,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference in Los Angeles last month. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country, and what they have tried to insert into this city.”

The antagonism toward California is not entirely surprising, having been a feature of Trump’s first term and his recent presidential campaign. And yet, the breadth and pace of the administration’s attacks, aided by a Republican-controlled Congress and a U.S. Supreme Court convinced of executive power, have stunned many — pleasing some and infuriating others.

“Trump’s been able to go much further, much faster than anyone would have calculated, with the assistance of the Supreme Court,” said Bob Shrum, director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future.

“In a second Trump term, he’s clearly either feeling or acting more emboldened and testing the limits of his power, and Republicans in Congress certainly aren’t doing anything to try to rein that in,” said California Sen. Alex Padilla, who was forced to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents after confronting Noem at her news conference. “It’s enraging. It’s offensive.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is removed from the room after interrupting a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)

“What is clear after six months is we now have some measure of checks and balances in California, a counterweight to one-party supermajority control at the state level,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin). “From securing the border to reversing the ban on gas cars to protecting girls’ sports, balance and common sense are returning to our state.”

Rob Stutzman, a longtime GOP strategist in California who is no fan of Trump, said the president’s motivations for targeting California are obvious, as it “is the contrast that he basically has built MAGA on.”

Visuals of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounding up immigrants in liberal California are red meat to the MAGA base, Stutzman said. “What they’ve been able to do in California is basically create the live TV show that they want.”

But Trump is hardly the only politician who benefits from his administration being on a war footing with the nation’s most populous blue state, Stutzman said. There is a “symbiotic relationship that Democrats in California have with Trump,” he said, and leaders such as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also benefit politically when they’re seen as standing up to the president.

“If not for Trump’s assault on California, was Gavin Newsom in South Carolina?” Stutzman asked, of what many viewed as an early presidential campaign stop earlier this month. “Would Karen Bass otherwise have been given a lifeline after her disastrous performance with the fires?”

Bass, in a statement to The Times, defended her record, saying both homelessness and homicides are down and fire recovery is moving quickly. She said the Trump administration was helpful with early fire response, but “now they’ve assaulted our city” with immigration raids — which is why L.A. has joined in litigation to stop them, as her “number one job is to protect Angelenos.”

Bob Salladay, a senior advisor to Newsom, dismissed the idea that battling Trump is in any way good for California or welcomed by its leaders. “That’s not why we’re fighting him,” he said. “We’re fighting him because what he’s doing is immoral and illegal.”

Protesters gather in front of City Hall to denounce the Trump administration while attending a “Good Trouble Lives On” demonstration on Thursday in Los Angeles. This is one of hundreds of Good Trouble protests happening around the country in honor of the late civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Salladay agreed, however, that the last six months have produced a stunning showdown over American values that few predicted — even with the conservative Project 2025 playbook laying out much of it in advance.

“We knew it would be bad. We didn’t know it would be this bad,” Salladay said. “We didn’t know it would be the president of the United States sending U.S. troops into an American city and taking away resources from the National Guard for public theater.”

What’s being fought over?

When protests over early immigration raids erupted in scattered pockets of L.A. and downtown, Trump dramatized them as a grave threat to citywide safety, in part to justify bringing in the military. Local officials say masked and militarized agents swarming Latino and other immigrant neighborhoods and racially profiling targets for detention have undermined safety far more than the protests ever did.

Trump has since pulled back about half the troops, but thousands remain. A federal judge recently ordered federal agents to stop using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate arrests, but raids continue.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is demanding California counties provide lists of noncitizens in their jails.

Protesters walk onto the fields adjacent to the Glass House, where immigration raids took place July 10 in Camarillo.

(Julie Leopo / For The Times)

Beyond L.A., officials and industry leaders say immigration raids have badly spooked workers in farming, construction, street vending and other service sectors, with some leaving the job for fear of being detained. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff war with trading partners has made it more difficult for some farmers to purchase equipment and chemical supplies.

The Justice Department is suing the state for allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports, alleging such policies violate federal civil rights law. It is suing the state over an animal welfare law protecting hens from being kept in small cages, blaming the policy for driving up the cost of eggs in violation of federal farming regulations. It is investigating L.A. County’s gun permitting process, suggesting excessive fees and wait times are violating people’s gun rights.

Trump signed legislation to undo California’s aggressive limits on auto emissions and a landmark rule that would ban new gas-only car sales in the state by 2035. His administration just rescinded billions of dollars for a long-planned high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, calling it a “boondoggle.”

Work continues on the California High Speed Rail, Hanford Viaduct.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The legal antagonism has cut in the opposite direction, as well, with California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office having sued the Trump administration more than 30 times in the last six months over a range of issues.

Bonta has sued over billions of dollars in cuts to education funding and billions of dollars in cuts to medical research and development. He has sued over Trump executive orders declaring that California must radically restrict voting access, over Trump’s unilateral tariff scheme and over clawbacks of funding and approvals for wind energy and electric vehicle charging stations.

Bonta called the Trump administration’s targeting of the state “a lot of show” — and “disrespectful, inappropriate and unlawful.” He noted a lot of wins in court for the state, but also acknowledged the administration has scored victories, too, particularly at the Supreme Court, which has temporarily cleared the way for mass layoffs of federal employees, the dismantling of the Department of Education and the undoing of birthright citizenship.

But those rulings are “just procedural” for now as litigation continues, Bonta stressed, and the fight continues.

“We are absolutely unapologetic, resolute, committed to meeting the Trump administration in court and beating them back each time they violate the law,” Bonta said.

Who benefits?

After six months of entrenched political infighting between the U.S. and its largest state, who benefits?

Trump, officials in his administration and some state Republicans are adamant that it is good, hardworking, law-abiding people of California, who they allege have long suffered under liberal state policies that reward criminals and unauthorized immigrants.

“What would Los Angeles look like without illegal aliens?” Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top policy advisors, recently asked on Fox News — before suggesting, without proof, that it would have better healthcare and schooling for U.S. children and “no drug deaths” on the streets.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller arrive to a bill signing event in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday..

(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement to The Times that “Gavin Newscum” — Trump’s favorite insult — is “destroying” the state, and that Trump “has had to step in and save Californians from Gavin’s incompetence.”

“First, when Newscum was chronically unprepared to address the January wildfires, and more recently when he refused to stop violent, left-wing rioters from attacking federal law enforcement,” Jackson said. “This doesn’t even account for Newscum’s radical, left-wing policies, which the Administration is working to protect Californians — and all Americans — from, like letting men destroy women’s sports, or turning a blind eye to child labor exploitation.”

Trump, she said, “will continue to stand up for Californians like a real leader, while Newsom sips wine in Napa.”

Some Republicans in the state strongly agree, including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running for governor. With Trump in office, Bianco said, “there’s finally someone working and looking out for Californians’ best interests.”

He said Trump called in troops only because of the “embarrassing” failure of L.A. officials to maintain order. He said the only reason ICE is going after unauthorized immigrants in the streets — with some bystanders admittedly caught in the fray — is that California sanctuary laws prevent agents from just picking them up in jails.

“This is an absolute failure of a Democrat-led agenda and Democrat policy that is forcing the federal government to go into our neighborhoods looking for these criminals,” Bianco said. “Californians are being punished for it because of failed California leadership, not because of the federal government.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Trump called in troops only because of the “embarrassing” failure of L.A. officials to maintain order.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Newsom, Bass and other liberal officials, of course, have framed Trump’s actions in the state in very different terms.

In a recent filing in the federal case challenging the constitutionality of ICE’s immigration tactics in L.A., California and 17 other liberal-led states argued those tactics had left citizens and noncitizens afraid to go outside, turned “once bustling neighborhoods into ghost towns” and devastated local businesses.

State and local officials have said they are fighting the administration so aggressively because Trump’s policies threaten billions in federal funding for the state in education, healthcare, transportation and other sectors.

California Sen. Adam Schiff, a staunch adversary of Trump, said he has had particularly troubling conversations with farmers up and down the state, who are feeling the pain from Trump’s immigration polices and tariffs acutely.

“Their workers are increasingly not showing up. Their raw materials are increasingly more expensive because of the tariffs. Their markets are shrinking because of the recoil by other countries from this kind of indiscriminate turf war,” Schiff said. “Farmers are really in the epicenter of this.”

So, too, Schiff said, are the millions of Californians who could be affected by the administration’s decision to cut environmental funding and curtail disaster preparation and relief in the state, including by hampering water management and flood mitigation work and “slow-walking” wildfire relief in L.A.

“Donald Trump is the first U.S. president who doesn’t believe that it’s his job to represent the whole country — only the states that voted for him,” Schiff said. “The president seems to have a particular, personal vendetta against California, which is obviously [a] deep disservice to the millions of residents in our state, no matter whom they voted for.”

A ‘model’ for what’s next?

During her Los Angeles news conference, Noem said that federal officials in L.A. were “putting together a model and a blueprint” that could be replicated elsewhere — an apparent warning against other blue cities and states bucking the administration.

California officials saw it exactly that way. Bass has accused the administration of “treating Los Angeles as a test case for how far it can go in driving its political agenda forward while pushing the Constitution aside.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass arrives at MacArthur Park on July 7 as federal agents staged there.

(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)

What happens next, several political observers said, depends on whether the antagonism continues to work politically, and whether the administration starts acting on its threats to crack down even more.

When Bass showed up in person to object to heavily armed immigration agents storming through MacArthur Park recently, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino allegedly told her that she and other L.A. officials and residents “better get used to” agents being in the city, who “will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin, when asked if Bass would be arrested, said they were “keeping everything on the table.”

Trump has suggested Newsom should be arrested, too, saying, “I’d do it.” Padilla was taken forcefully to the ground and handcuffed at a Noem press event. Trump has accused Schiff of criminal fraud for claiming primary residency in mortgage paperwork for a home in his district and one near his work in Washington, D.C., which Schiff called a baseless political attack.

Padilla said it’s all to be expected from a Republican administration that hates and fears everything that his state stands for, but that Democrats aren’t backing down and will continue to “organize, organize, organize” to defend Californians and win back power in the midterms.

“We’re not the fourth largest economy in the world despite our diversity and immigrant population, but because of it,” Padilla said. “Diversity and migrants doing well and making our country stronger is Donald Trump’s worst nightmare — and that has made California his No. 1 target.”

Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on July 7.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Schiff said the administration’s actions in California in the last six months are indeed producing “the TV show that Trump wanted to show his MAGA base,” but “it’s a TV show that is not going over well with the American people.”

Trump’s approval numbers on immigration are down, Schiff said, because Americans don’t want to live in a country where landscapers, car wash employees and farmworkers with zero criminal convictions are terrorized by masked agents in the streets and U.S. citizen children are ripped from their parents.

“The more Trump tries to inflict harm and pain on California, and the more he disrupts life in California cities and communities, the more he makes the Republican brand absolutely toxic,” Schiff said, “and the more harm that he does to Republican elected leaders up and down the state.”