sign

It took a field goal with 10 seconds left by star soccer player Alejandro Carranza to give King/Drew a 13-12 win over L.A. Cathedral last week. That’s a breakthrough win for King/Drew against a quality Southern Section opponent.

King/Drew is 2-2 in nonleague games and wants a return to the City Section Open Division playoffs. The Golden Eagles always seem to have lots of talent but have failed to reach the championship game of the City playoffs at the highest level.

This season there’s signs of progress on offense. Quarterback Gerard Torres has passed for 1,106 yards and eight touchdowns. Receiver Darr Muhammad has 26 catches and three touchdowns. King/Drew has lost to San Pedro and Culver City this season and has wins over Cathedral and Gardena.

There’s a showdown with Crenshaw on Oct. 16 to probably decide the Coliseum League title. King/Drew also travels to face Baltimore St. Francis Academy, where coach Joe Torres used to coach.

King/Drew needs to keep improving to reach the top four in the City playoffs.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Earlier this year, an Iran-linked actor used Anthropic’s Claude artificial intelligence model to scrape and analyze data with the aim of helping target U.S. naval forces in the Middle East. A group in Yemen – very likely Iranian-backed Houthi militants – also used Claude to assist with work on guidance systems for ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

These are just some of the revelations about how adversaries and other malign actors have been using one of the premier pieces of AI software being developed in the United States that were contained in a new report Anthropic released late yesterday. The 154-page document also details instances where Claude was used directly and indirectly to support intelligence gathering and surveillance, cyberattacks, influence operations, and even worrisome biological research over the past eight months. In addition to Iran and Yemen, the human actors behind these activities were based in Russia, China, and a host of other countries.

Anthropic has shared details about what it calls the “misuse” of its models in the past, but describes the new report as its “most detailed” to date. The company has clearly been cataloging these case studies, and has assigned each one a control number. Though the entire contents of the report are cause for concern, the explicit attempt to use Claude to target American forces, as well as to develop new higher-end missiles and other military technology, are particular standouts and signs of what’s to come, as we will highlight below.

GTG-30005: Military reconnaissance

GTG-30005 is the case study dealing with the targeting of U.S. naval forces, and the summary is as follows:

“In another investigation, we identified and disrupted an Iran-nexus threat actor that used Claude to collect and analyze publicly accessible data to develop targeting recommendations against US naval forces in the region. The threat actor used Claude to compile targeting handbooks, through a Python pipeline the threat actor built with Claude’s assistance, to identify and track naval positions based on open-source information. The compiled material included a roster of US personnel scraped from captions on public military photographs; publicly accessible ship and aircraft transponder identifiers; commercial satellite-imagery query scripts; and an inventory of public websites that exposed US naval movements. The threat actor also directed Claude to compile vulnerability research on shipboard systems, cataloging known CVEs in maritime VSAT terminals, Cisco communications equipment, and industrial control products.”

“We banned the actor’s account, developed detections to reduce the risk of future misuse, and shared threat intelligence with government authorities to disrupt the threat.”

How exactly Anthropic defines the term “nexus” here is not immediately clear, and other entries in its new report also use “state-nexus” in addition to country-based variations. However, in this specific case, an addendum is added to the entry that explicitly says that the same account was separately tied to “domestic mass surveillance” software development work “for Iranian state systems,” clearly pointing to an actor directly linked to the regime in Tehran.

Whether or not any of the data collected and analysed here was directly used to subsequently carry out attacks on U.S. forces is unknown. However, there have been media reports just in recent weeks that Iran has been increasingly trying to strike American warships. Those same reports have raised questions about how the country has been prosecuting those operations given its limited capabilities and capacity to track maritime targets far from its shores. The possibility that Russia or China could be supplying targeting data has been put forward.

The use of AI technology by nation-state armed forces to develop target sets and engage them is already known to be growing globally. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been a pioneer in this regard, but the U.S. military, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and others are also known to be developing and fielding these capabilities.

U.S. military officials have also voiced increasing concern in recent years about the ability to track the movements and disposition of U.S. military assets and personnel using publicly available pictures and other data. There has been much talk, in turn, about how to balance transparency and operational security.

GTG-87001: Disrupting a Yemen-based guided weapons engineering cell using Claude to develop guidance software

Anthropic’s new report details an instance where an individual in Yemen used Claude as part of missile guidance work, which is given the control number GTG-87001.

“We identified a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs: a guided rocket that used a commodity phone-class flight computer with final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range goal above 2,000 km; and a multi-variant missile (referred to as the “R2000” set) that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant.”

“The actors used Claude Code in place of human software engineers to develop the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) software that steers and stabilizes a flying vehicle. For example, they used Claude to integrate an open-source autopilot onto a phone-class flight computer, writing the control and position estimation software, tuning the control settings, running a firmware build pipeline, and performing a flight simulation. The actors managed several Claude instances at once, assigning each one a role, much as a lead would delegate work on a small engineering team: the actors tasked one instance with writing the code, another with research, and a third with reviewing the code the first instance produced.”

“Our safeguards blocked many of their requests, but not all of them. The actors used a variety of tactics to evade our safeguards, including hiding their goals and the products the software was meant for, and they split their work across multiple sessions so no single session revealed their full intent.”

“These actors carried out a sustained effort to develop guided weapons, including using Claude to design guidance software. We do not have evidence the actors succeeded in fielding an operational device; but they did test-fire a guided rocket. This field test appears to have failed: within hours, the actors returned to Claude to work out why it failed.”

“We identified this activity as part of our internal investigations into suspected weapons development. We banned accounts associated with the actors and shared threat information with public- and private-sector partners to mitigate risks posed by the actors. Nevertheless, we have evidence that the actors had already built an offline simulation toolkit that does not rely on Claude or other engineering computing environments such as MATLAB.”

As mentioned earlier, the report does not name the Houthis, but that group has historically been based primarily in the northern end of Yemen. It is also the only entity in the country known to have active missile development programs, which are conducted with critical support from Iran.

Whether this particular work directly resulted in any new capabilities is unknown. Anthropic notes that there looked to be at least one failed test launch before the accounts were banned, which would have occurred sometime after the beginning of this year, based on the stated cutoff dates for the report. By the end of 2025, the Houthis had already amassed a wide array of very real ballistic missiles, including types with at least claimed ranges of 2,000 kilometers (approximately 1,242 miles). The group also has a variety of cruise missiles and one-way attack drones that it has employed operationally.

Still, being able to leverage Claude could only have helped any domestic missile development efforts in Yemen, which might help reduce dependency on Iran, at least to a degree. Furthermore, developing functional hypersonic glide vehicles capable of prolonged stable flight has historically been notoriously difficult, even for entities with extensive relevant knowledge bases on an organizational level.

GTG-17001: Disrupting a China-based operation using Claude to draft a fire control specification and acquisition documents for undersea warfare

Use of Claude in foreign military endeavours goes beyond the Middle East, as evidenced by case study GTG-17001. This involved a Chinese actor conducting work related to a naval counter-torpedo defense system.

“We identified a China-based threat actor who used Claude to advance three parallel tracks of work on an anti-torpedo weapons system:”

• “First, the actor used Claude to draft a Chinese-language specification for an anti-torpedo fire control system (the core logic that aims and times an anti-torpedo weapon’s response). The document was written to win approval from a Chinese defense manufacturer, which would move the work on to technical certification and operational testing.”
• “Second, the actor used Claude to produce a Chinese-language technical proposal of more than 200 pages, accompanied by an executive briefing deck.”
• “Third, the actor used Claude to benchmark their own system against specific US anti-torpedo and anti-submarine programs based on publicly accessible information. They then generated a Chinese-language briefing on US Navy systems derived from open-source reporting.”

“The actor presented themselves as an original equipment manufacturer in the US defense sector. We assess the actor was associated with a Chinese defense industry manufacturer aiming to produce a weapons specification and acquisition proposal for the People’s Liberation Army Navy.”

“The actor used Claude to write the acquisition proposal, refining it over many drafts. After each draft, the actor instructed Claude to role-play a hostile expert reviewer to critique the proposal, then used that feedback to sharpen the next version. In parallel, the actor used Claude to build pieces of the anti-torpedo weapons system’s fire control software and a test matrix to validate them.”

“The operational lift the actor achieved was a function of using Claude to automate complex technical outputs. The actor leveraged the model to compress the development timelines for the certification registry, compliance documentation, and automated fire control logic. The actor also accelerated the traditional human review cycle by having Claude critique the acquisition proposal across multiple rounds of review while role-playing a persona.”

“We uncovered this activity as part of our internal investigations into suspected weapons development. We cannot attribute the activity to a specific entity or actor. But we have banned the account for violating our Supported Regions Policy and our Usage Policy, which prohibits weapons design and development, and incorporated our investigative findings into our safeguards to mitigate the risk of future misuse.”

Anthropic’s report does not name the U.S. programs leveraged here, but does note the information in question was publicly available. Anti-torpedo systems for surface warships and submarines have been an area of significant interest for the U.S. Navy for years now. Those developments have also produced compact torpedo designs for use in other applications.

The PLAN’s interest in these same kinds of capabilities is not at all surprising. Underwater threats and countermeasures to them, broadly speaking, would play a central and vital role in any future conflict between the United States and China across the broad expanses of the Pacific.

GTG-27005: Disrupting a Russia-based operation using Claude to engineer an autonomous military drone swarm

Another case study, GTG-27005, details the use of Claude by Russian actors working on drone swarming technology.

“We identified likely freelance Russia-based threat actors who set out to build a full-stack autonomous first-person-view (FPV) kamikaze drone swarm. The actors used Claude Code to write and test the code and save it directly into the actors’ own project files. In addition to Claude Code, the actors used a software-in-the-loop simulation stack and a rented graphics processing host for model training. They called the operation ‘DronDoc’ or ‘Serafim.’”

“The actors used Claude to build the core software system, including the drones’ shared swarm memory and fault-tolerant coordination logic (FTCL); an onboard small language model to govern attack, observe, and return-to-base behaviors; a terminal guidance software system to steer drones to their target (using the onboard camera) and issue the call to detonate; a control-link geolocation module to find opposing drone operators; a passive acoustic detection layer; and low-level logic for the drones’ programmable chips. The actors designed the platform for autonomous lethal engagement; the onboard model could select targets (including a ‘person’ target class) and issue detonation commands without a human in the loop. The actors’ activity—including flashing the low-level firmware to live development boards, provisioning single-board computers, and wiring up a simulation environment over a mesh network—confirmed that they were using real hardware-in-loop testing within their sessions.”

“The actors trained a computer vision classifier on scraped Ukrainian combat footage, splitting the target classes into “enemy” and “friendly,” and allow-listing Russian systems. They also repeatedly used a fixed coordinate in Donetsk Oblast as the demonstration strike point, with front-line cities and corridors in Ukraine as the mission geography.”

“The actors created their accounts between late 2025 and early 2026 and started the operation in mid-May 2026. The actors circumvented our geographic access controls by routing traffic through commercial virtual private servers.”

“We assess the actors were a small, specialized freelance team doing a mix of civilian and military work, not a Russian state entity. We identified nine accounts associated with this group; eight were used only for ordinary freelance work, not weapons-related software development. Based on our investigation, we assess the actors had ties to a regional university with a federal research center associated with the Russian Academy of Sciences. The actors claimed to have received funding from Russia’s Advanced Research Foundation, National Technology Initiative, and Ministry of Defence, though we cannot verify those claims. We identified this activity as part of our internal investigations into suspected weapons development, we banned accounts associated with the actors, and have incorporated our investigative findings into safeguards to reduce the risk of future misuse.”

Anthropic’s report included a table, reproduced below, detailing different types of drones and other capabilities that were fed into the model as part of this work.

Also, while Anthropic said it could not confirm any direct ties in this instance to the Russian government, the work described here is fully in line with capabilities that have already been demonstrated to varying degrees in Ukraine in the past few years. TWZ has been very closely tracking developments on both sides of the conflict when it comes to new automated targeting and swarming capabilities for shorter- and longer-ranged kamikaze drones. In 2024, we also published a detailed feature outlining a coming revolution in drone warfare, signs of which were already emerging then, thanks to AI and the ever-lowering barrier to entry for leveraging that technology.

GTG-17002: Disrupting a China-based operation using Claude to build targeting software for electronic warfare and air defense suppression

The last case study in the Conventional Weapons section of Anthropic’s new report, GTG-17002, covers electronic warfare-related work by a Chinese actor, with a particular focus on potential air defense targets in Taiwan.

“We identified a China-based actor who used Claude’s chat, coding, and agentic work tools to design, build, and iterate on a Chinese-language suite of about 16 modules for electronic warfare, using the electromagnetic spectrum to detect, jam, or deceive an opponent’s radar and communications, and for suppressing an opponent’s air defenses.”

“The actor used Claude to build the software system, from the underlying logic to the user interface, and iterated through 12 versions. This included implementing and optimizing the system’s radar detection and jamming physics, generating a vulnerability analysis module, and drafting Chinese-language targeting instructions. The software suite the actor built analyzed an opponent’s radars, surface-to-air missile sites, command posts, and communications nodes, then computed their detection coverage, assessed the effectiveness of jamming, ranked targets by value and vulnerability, including which to suppress first, and determined how best to assign jammer sorties to targets across multi-day campaigns. The suite also ranked which of an opponent’s assets to suppress first, and modeled specific engagement envelopes, including those of Patriot and THAAD-class [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] systems.”

“Mid-project, we observed the actor change the simulation’s default scenario to 12 targets in Taiwan. The targets included a command bunker in Taiwan, an early warning radar site, Patriot and Tien Kung [surface-to-air missile] batteries, major air bases, and a regional combatant command headquarters.”

NCSIST – Tien Kung III Air Defense Missile & Hsiung Feng III Anti-Ship Missile Live Firing [480p]

“The actor also ran a self-hosted model on an internal network alongside Claude and connected the software suite to this model through a tool-use integration.”

“Based on our investigation, we assess the actor is a China-based defense and military-industrial researcher. Account-level metadata and content flagged by our safeguards indicated the actor was linked to PRC research institutions, including the PLA Academy of Military Sciences. We detected this activity as part of our internal investigations into suspected weapons development, we banned accounts linked to the actor, and have incorporated our investigative findings into our safeguards to reduce the risk of future misuse.”

An accompanying table, seen below, mentions several specific types of U.S.-made air defense radars, as well as the Link-16 datalink network, as having come up in the course of this work. Electronic warfare variants of the Chinese Y-8 and Y-9 aircraft, as well as the J-16D electronic warfare jet, and what appears to be a reference to the Golden Eagle drone helicopter, are also mentioned.

China’s J-16D Shows Versatility Across Reconnaissance, Attack, Defense: Designers

The suppression of enemy air defenses is an essential part of any modern air campaign, whether conducted independently or as a part of a larger operation. This would be no less critical in any military intervention against Taiwan from the mainland, or any other larger-scale conflict the PLA might find itself in.

Guardrails and ethics

Beyond the details in any of the specific case studies, Anthropic’s new report underscores growing broader concerns about guardrails for the use of AI and general ethics surrounding the technology. As noted in the instances above, Anthropic has also implemented various safeguards to try to block access to Claude from certain regions and/or to prevent the model from conducting certain types of work. At the same time, what the company has now shared makes clear that those protections can still be circumvented to a significant degree, at least for now.

For its part, Anthropic has been publicly supportive of transparency laws and regulation, at least within the United States. The company also notably made tweaks to certain Claude models earlier this year to address U.S. government cybersecurity concerns.

Starting in December 2025, Anthropic has also been very publicly embroiled in a dispute with the Pentagon over the potential use of Claude to support mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapon systems. This subsequently led to the company being designated a supply chain risk, and limitations being imposed on the use of that model within the U.S. military and elsewhere across the U.S. government. Anthropic is continuing to fight that action in court. However, just yesterday, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael said the U.S. military had scaled back the use of Anthropic’s products in support of classified work by 90 percent.

The concerns about ‘misuse’ outlined in Anthropic’s new report apply, in general terms, to publicly accessible models being developed by other companies, too. There have already been publicly disclosed instances of AI agents themselves engaging in hacking and other malign behavior in order to complete assigned tasks, raising additional questions about security and public safety, not to mention ethics.

TWZ has noted in the past that America’s adversaries are likely to be less worried about ethics, in general, when it comes to AI. Anthropic’s new report also shows there are few bounds to what state-aligned or even non-state actors might seek to use this technology for, including the development of potential weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, AI models like Claude are not going away, and developments continue to advance at an ever-quickening pace, opening the door to further proliferation. Developments are rapidly intermingling globally, with companies in China notably leveraging models created in the U.S. to further their own work, which is then released publicly. The technology will increasingly become more integrated and critical to most aspects of military operations and weapons development, alongside its commercial and civilian applications. It is just as much a superweapon as anything else, and the country with the more capable models, and the willingness to deploy them, will have a major edge in future conflicts.

With all this in mind, it seems very plausible, if not probable, that the case studies described in Anthropic’s new report are just the tip of an approaching iceberg that will need a concerted effort to tackle.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Hollywood’s film and TV post-production workers took their case directly to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, urging him to sign a bill that would create the state’s first standalone post-production tax incentive.

Workers such as editors, singers and sound supervisors joined bill author Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank) and Mayor Karen Bass at a news conference Thursday morning in front of the Television Academy’s headquarters in North Hollywood.

The bill, AB 2319, is aimed at supporting the industry’s editors, sound mixers, composers and visual effects artists. It passed the state Senate 33 to 5 on Aug. 30, and the Assembly approved the final version 72 to 2 the same day. Newsom, who has not taken a public position on the measure, has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it.

Bass urged supporters not to let up before then.

“We need our industry in full force,” Bass said. “It’s all a part of making our city more affordable. We know that this is one of the biggest issues in our city, and so having a strong, robust industry helps Angelenos across the board.”

The incentive would allow a 35% to 50% credit on qualified expenses relating specifically to post-production in California. The state’s existing film and TV tax credit program already covers post-production, but only if 75% of filming or the overall budget is spent in the state. The new credit doesn’t require productions to shoot in California.

Even if Newsom signs the bill, the program would start small. Schultz initially proposed $100 million to fund the effort, but the Legislature’s end-of-session budget sets aside $10 million to launch it.

“When you think about production, it’s easy to think about the actors, the directors and the writers; you don’t think about all that happens when the camera stops rolling,” Schultz said. “What’s changed is that they’re now telling their story about the struggles they’re facing.”

For industry veteran Karen Baker Landers, the decline in local post-production work is impossible to overlook. A two-time Oscar-winning supervising sound editor, Baker Landers is vice president of California Post Alliance, the group sponsoring the bill.

“It’s affecting people in huge ways, like losing their health insurance. I get people calling me asking to get just two weeks of work to qualify for coverage,” said Baker Landers. “It’s really difficult.”

Last year, California expanded its film and TV tax credit program, more than doubling the old $330-million cap to $750 million through June 30, 2030. But a state budget measure Newsom signed in June capped how much in tax credits a business can claim each year, a limit industry groups warned would undercut the expanded program. Lawmakers passed a fix on the final day of the legislative session and it is also awaiting the governor’s signature.

Despite the state’s bigger bet on the industry — and this summer’s fight over the cap — L.A. City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, whose district includes North Hollywood, argued at the press conference that this is the right moment to keep asking for more.

“It’s that exact momentum that we need. When you double down on something, you’re giving more than hope, and you’re saying welcome back. Please come and do your work. Don’t stop doing this,” Nazarian said.

Tanzanian striker Clara Luvanga has joined the Washington Spirit from Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr in a deal believed to be one of the most costly in the history of women’s football.

The fee paid by the National Women’s Soccer League side has not been officially disclosed.

Some are reporting it to be $2.3m, external (about £1.7m), which would make Luvanga the most expensive female footballer in history.

BBC Sport has not been able to verify this figure, although a well-placed source said they believed it ranked in the top five most expensive signings in the women’s game.

The Spirit declined to comment on the fee involved when contacted by BBC Sport.

Luvanga, 21, has signed a contract running to the end of the 2029 NWSL season.

If the reported record figure is correct, it would mean the fee passes the £1.4m that London City Lionesses are said to have paid to Paris St-Germain for Grace Geyoro last year.

However, the Geyoro fee has been disputed, further illustrating how transfer figures in the women’s game are often kept private.

With her move, Luvanga becomes the first Tanzanian player in NWSL history.

Luvanga won the Saudi Women’s Premier League in all three of her seasons with Al-Nassr, as well as the Saudi Women’s Cup, Saudi Women’s Super Cup and West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Women’s Clubs Championship.

She also claimed the league’s golden boot last season after scoring 24 goals in 14 appearances.

The Washington Spirit are owned by Michele Kang, who also owns London City Lionesses.

London City made a series of high-profile signings during the summer transfer window, including two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas who arrived from Barcelona on a three-year deal.

Luvanga made her senior international debut for Tanzania in 2024. Before joining Al-Nassr in 2023, she played for DUX Logrono in Spain, having developed through the youth system at Tanzanian club Yanga Princess.

When discussing her new club, Luvanga said: “I am very excited to join the Washington Spirit and to take on this new challenge in the NWSL.

“I know I am arriving with the season already under way, but I’m really excited to play in a new league and a new country.”

Spirit sporting director James Hocken said: “Clara adds an exciting new dimension to our attack as we head toward the play-offs.

“Despite her young age, she has demonstrated the ability to score goals in different ways and has the profile to be very successful in this league.”

Former Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy has joined Burnley until the end of the season.

The 39-year-old, who is Leicester’s record Premier League scorer with 145 goals, departed for Cremonese in 2025.

Vardy left the Italian side in the summer and now joins the winless Clarets who are bottom of the Championship.

“This club has a proper footballing history and passionate fans who deserve a team that represents them and their town,” Vardy told the club website., external

“I can’t wait to get going on the pitch and help the team move in the right direction.”

Vardy, who won 26 caps for England, scoring seven goals, spent 13 years at Leicester after signing from non-league Fleetwood Town in 2012.

He went on to score 200 goals in all competitions in 500 appearances.

Burnley, relegated from the Premier League last season, have made a poor start back in the second tier and have not won in five matches under new boss Nicky Hayen.

On Saturday they conceded two goals in the final 10 minutes to lose 2-1 at home to Bristol City.

“His experience and leadership will be invaluable to our squad, and we believe he can make a significant impact on our campaign,” Hayen added.

“Jamie has a proven track record, and we are looking forward to seeing him in a Claret shirt.”

Manchester City have signed England goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse on a short-term loan from Orlando Pride.

The 31-year-old will join the Women’s Super League champions until January, subject to international clearance.

Moorhouse has established herself in the National Women’s Soccer League after joining Orlando Pride from French side Bordeaux in January 2022.

She helped them win the NWSL Shield and NWSL Championship in 2024 and earned herself a call-up to the England squad that year.

Oldham-born Moorhouse, who has two England caps and was part of the Lionesses squad that won Euro 2025, counts Arsenal and West Ham among her former clubs.

WASHINGTON — Confronted by an intransigent Iranian government that has refused to back down in the face of a massive military campaign, President Trump appears to have settled on a dual-prong approach that combines economic pressure with the potential of a devastating escalation in force.

Having launched “Operation Economic Outcast” just last week to try to isolate Iran from its remaining global trade partners, the Trump administration also resumed strikes in recent days, prompting Iranian retaliation that has renewed concerns of an all-out regional war.

However, the combination of already intense sanctions on Iran and an off-and-on bombing campaign since the war began more than six months ago has not bowed the Iranian leadership and has left the administration struggling to find a way to wind down the conflict. Tehran has dug in its heels — to Trump’s frustration — as energy prices rise, the global economy roils and poll numbers on the administration’s handling of the war dip ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.

Trump said Wednesday that he didn’t think the conflict would last “much longer,” but he again shrugged off suggestions that its unpopularity and high gasoline prices resulting from Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz would affect the elections for Republicans.

“It doesn’t matter. And I’m not affected by the election,” he told reporters. “I’m not running. But my party is running, and I’m going to help my party. But I think my party respects the fact that we’re not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

A regional diplomat briefed on the matter described the current impasse between Tehran and Washington as reflective of both countries’ domestic priorities: the midterm elections for Trump and Republicans and the internal crises within Iran.

Domestic issues are critical reasons why neither side is willing to blink first, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

The diplomat said negotiations, including those between Iran and Oman or even Iran and the U.S., will not go anywhere without addressing the initial catalyst of war: Israel. And the diplomat was skeptical of the Trump administration’s new sanctions plan, saying the threats require more explanation than what the U.S. has provided so far.

The Trump administration’s economic isolation of Iran is off to a slow start

The administration’s new push for Iran’s economic isolation was announced with great fanfare last week and a dire warning for all remaining countries to cut off financial and trade ties with Iran or face U.S. retaliation — but the campaign so far has fallen flat.

Just one branch of an Egyptian bank in the United Arab Emirates has been targeted so far. For actual sanctions to bite, experts agree that they must apply to Iran’s main trading partners: mainly China but also India and Russia. But Trump is loath to target China especially as he is preparing to host President Xi Jinping later this month.

Trump also insists that the U.S. has control over the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war began. The strategic waterway has been a key pressure point for Iran, and reopening it fully has become one of the prime goals for the U.S. administration.

Ship traffic through the strait is well below pre-war levels due to the risk of attack if vessels don’t comply with an Iranian vetting regime near its coastline, which is in sharp contrast to the unhindered navigation before the war. There were 102 transits last week and 126 the week before, according to shipping data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, compared with 130 or more per day before the war.

“As President Trump said, the strait is open and all mines have been cleared,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Thursday. “The naval blockade remains in full force and effect, and Operation Economic Outcast is underway to sever every remaining economic lifeline sustaining the regime.”

The White House has repeatedly touted the economic impact that the sanctions have had on Iran, citing its rampant inflation and the massive loss in the value of its currency. U.S. officials have described Iran’s financial system as “one big house of cards.”

Going forward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “the price” Iran will pay will be primarily economic, “but we reserve the right … to take military action when necessary — not just to protect ourselves but to prevent them from being able to threaten others as well.”

“They’re going to continue to feel the squeeze,” he told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade in an interview that aired Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week likened Iran to a snake that has been decapitated but whose body is still writhing.

“We are burying the head of the Iranian snake,” he said Tuesday. “The snake doesn’t know it’s dead yet, but it will stop wiggling when the sun goes down. And so the Iranian regime — they are in demise, and they will figure it out.”

Combining military force and sanctions on Iran ‘is the only option,’ one analyst says

Complicating things for the U.S., Iran’s leadership has shown signs of divisions between moderates more open to a diplomatic solution and hardliners who want to press ahead with a more confrontational approach.

President Masoud Pezeshkian is one of the most prominent voices still calling for a negotiated solution. But the hardliners appear to have gained the upper hand, and Iran shows no sign of backing down. Tehran continues to lash out at U.S. interests and allies around the region in response to military strikes.

“This kind of a hybrid approach — the combination of military force, blockade and economic pressure — that is the only option that seems to be available to the United States at this moment,” said Hamidreza Azizi, consulting senior Iran analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Still, he said, “it’s been for a long time, but now maybe more than ever, a battle of endurance between the two sides.”

Amr Hamzawy, director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pointed to two main reasons for the deteriorating situation.

“One, none of the two parties is satisfied with the outcome — meaning that the current situation does not serve U.S. interests well, and it does not serve Iranian interests well,” Hamzawy said.

The other reason is how leaders from both sides are perceived at home.

“The Trump administration is afraid of being portrayed in the U.S. as an administration that failed to end a military campaign successfully, and that’s going to impact the midterm elections,” he said. “And the Iranians, especially the Revolutionary Guard, are quite afraid of appearing as if they are submitting to U.S. sanctions with no actions on their side, which might hurt them domestically.”

Lee, Magdy and Amiri write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writers Will Weissert in Washington and David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, contributed to this report.

Johnstone, who won the last of his four England caps in 2023, made 17 appearances last season but lost his starting place at relegated Wolves in December and has not played since an FA Cup loss to Liverpool in early March.

“I’m buzzing to be here and I’m excited to get going,” said the goalkeeper, who began his career at Manchester United and has had spells at Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palce.

“I didn’t need convincing by anyone, but Joe Hart rang me the other day just to reiterate what a place this is, what a great group of lads and how the fans are unbelievable.

“You hear about the size of the club, but just being here for a day, you notice how big the club is. And the pressure to win, which is what I like – pressure to win, pressure to perform and we all want to win trophies.”

Kasper Schmeichel had been first choice at Celtic since the summer of 2024, but played his last game in February and subsequently retired due to a shoulder injury.

Manager Martin O’Neill said Johnstone would be “a very good addition” and that Mheuka has “great quality”.

O’Neill also said new left-back Emenalo “has many attributes which I think can benefit us”, adding he is “very quick on the ball and, while he can defend, he certainly gets up the pitch into attacking positions too.”

Juventus have announced the arrival of Pape Matar Sarr from Tottenham on an initial loan while also agreeing a season-long loan deal for Newcastle forward Nick Woltemade.

The Serie A club will pay Spurs about 2.5m euros (£2.1m) for the loan of Senegal midfielder Sarr.

The club confirmed the deal includes an obligation to buy the 23-year-old for 27.5m euros (£23.6m) if certain conditions are met during the 2026-27 season.

Sarr, who joined Spurs from Metz in 2021, made more than 100 Premier League appearances for the north London club and also helped them win the Europa League in 2025.

He has made 42 appearances for Senegal since his international debut in 2021 and won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022.

The announcement comes after Luciano Spalletti’s side also agreed a loan move for Woltemade, though that deal does not include an option to make it permanent.

The Italian side had been one of a number of clubs from the continent interested in signing the 24-year-old before Tuesday’s deadline.

Six-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen was arrested Sunday in downtown Indianapolis on suspicion of drunken driving.

According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, officers observed a vehicle parked in a no-parking zone on the 100 block of South Meridian Street shortly after 1 a.m. and conducted a traffic investigation. While speaking to the driver, who was later identified as Allen, officers noticed signs of intoxication.

Following further investigation, the longtime Chargers player and current Indianapolis Colts receiver was arrested on preliminary misdemeanor charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher) and OVWI (operating a vehicle while intoxicated) endangering a person.

Jail records show that Allen was released Sunday afternoon and has a court date scheduled for Sept. 16.

“An arrest and a charge are merely accusations, and Allen should be considered innocent unless and until found guilty in court,” the police department said in a statement. “The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will make the final charging decision.”

Allen was selected by the Chargers in the third round of the 2013 draft and made the Pro Bowl each year from 2017 to 2021 and again in 2023. After playing with the Chicago Bears in 2024 and returning to the Chargers last season, Allen signed with the Colts earlier this month and was included on their initial 53-man roster when it was released Sunday evening.

“We are aware of the incident involving Keenan Allen last night,” the Colts said in a statement earlier on Sunday. “We are in the process of gathering more information and have no further comment at this time.”

Allen has 1,055 career receptions (13th all time) for 12,051 yards (33rd all time) with 70 touchdown catches (52nd all time).

Elias joins the Premier League club on a five-year contract, their sixth signing in the summer transfer window.

Manchester City ‌have confirmed the signing of 22-year-old Brazilian winger ⁠Allan Elias ⁠from Palmeiras on a five-year contract, the club’s sixth summer arrival.

“Allan is a really exciting player, ⁠and we think he will be a big addition to the squad,” City’s Director of Football Hugo Viana ⁠said in a statement on Monday. “He has shown throughout his short career so far that he will fight to be the best he can be.”

According to reports in British media, City have ‌agreed to pay around $47 million for the player who came through the academy ranks at the Sao Paulo club and made 96 first-team appearances.

Elliot Anderson, Geronimo Rulli, Ayyoub Bouaddi, Jeremy Monga and Pierce Charles have also joined the club during this transfer ⁠window.

“This is a surreal moment for ⁠me. Manchester City, with everything they have won over the past 15 years, are one of the most attractive clubs in the world ⁠for players,” Allan said.

“To be able to sit here today and say I ⁠have joined them is the proudest ⁠moment of my life. I love Palmeiras and always will — but the decision to come to City was an easy one.”

Florianopolis-born Elias said he ‌hoped to be “another good Brazilian” in the Premier League and follow in the footsteps of the likes of ‌Gabriel ‌Jesus, Ederson and Fernandinho, who all won Premier League titles with City.

Manchester City have signed winger Allan Elias from Palmeiras in a deal worth up to £34.2m.

City have paid an initial £32m plus £2.2m in add-ons for the 22-year-old Brazilian, who has signed a five-year contract.

Allan is a direct replacement for compatriot Savio, who completed a £75m move to Tottenham Hotspur last week.

The right-sided winger scored nine goals and provided 12 assists in 96 appearances in all competitions for Brazilian top-flight side Palmeiras after progressing through the club’s youth system.

“This is a surreal moment for me. Manchester City, with everything they have won over the past 15 years, are one of the most attractive clubs in the world for players,” Allan said.

“To be able to sit here today and say I have joined them is the proudest moment of my life.

“I love Palmeiras and always will – but the decision to come to City was an easy one. I want to be the best footballer I can be and the conversations I’ve had with the people at City so far has convinced me there isn’t a better place for me to fulfil my ambitions.”

Allan is the latest addition to Enzo Maresca’s squad during a busy summer window.

City have spent over £230m so far this summer with Elliot Anderson arriving from Nottingham Forest for £116m and Ayyoub Bouaddi joining for £85.6m from Lille.

City are in talks with Liverpool over a move for Dutch forward Cody Gakpo and are keen to sign Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez.

However, City have raised over £286m in player sales with 2026 World Cup Golden Ball winner Rodri making a £65m move to Barcelona, and Tijani Reijnders joining Al-Qadsiah for £52m.

Nico Gonzalez and James Trafford also commanded significant fees, while Omar Marmoush’s loan to Tottenham includes an obligation to make the move permanent next summer for £60m.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Saturday erected a massive sign saying “Lake Ontario — Now and Always” in a rebuke to President Donald Trump‘s move to rename the body of water Lake America.

The sign in Hamilton sits on the shores of Lake Ontario and measures 18 feet tall, nearly two stories. It also says in French, “Lac Ontario — Aujourd’hui et pour toujours.”

“I’m here on the shores of beautiful Lake Ontario, a crown jewel of our province and our country,” Ford said in a video statement posted on X. “You may have heard that President Trump is trying to rename this lake, all because he doesn’t like Ontario and Canada standing up for ourselves.”

“But let’s be serious,” he added. “Long before President Trump, this lake was called Lake Ontario, and long after President Trump is gone, it will still be called Lake Ontario.”

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario amid a trade dispute with Canada.

He called Canada “entitled” and repeated claims that the country has ripped off the United States for years.

Canadian Prime Minister said it would be called Lake Ontario “now and always.”

J. Conrad Sence, president of Seneca Nation, said, “The president cannot assert ownership over our culture or erase it through irresponsible political action.”

“His order should be rescinded and the name Lake Ontario should be left as it is, reflective of the Seneca people, other Haudenosaunee nations and all Indigenous people surrounding the lake,” Seneca said in a statement shared with WIVB.

“To us, Lake Ontario is not a political pawn,” he added. “It does not separate the countries of the United States and Canada. It is all Indigenous land, which has been occupied by Indigenous people since time immemorial.”

The 23-year-old French forward would bolster new boss Andoni Iraola’s squad after the departure of Mohamed Salah.

Liverpool have ‌finalised an agreement to sign France forward Bradley ⁠Barcola from ⁠European champions Paris Saint-Germain in a deal worth up to 123 million pounds ($166m), media reports said, with the 23-year-old set to become the latest high-profile addition to Andoni Iraola’s squad.

The 20-time English champions ⁠will pay a package worth 106 million pounds ($143m), with add-ons potentially rising to 17 million pounds ($23m), for Barcola, the BBC reported on Saturday. The Athletic reported that he is set to sign a five-year contract.

Barcola joined PSG from his boyhood club Olympique Lyonnais in 2023 and went on to enjoy a trophy-laden spell in the French capital, winning back-to-back Champions League titles in 2024-25 and 2025-26, three Ligue 1 crowns and two French ⁠Cups, among other honours.

He made 152 ⁠appearances in all competitions for PSG, scoring 39 goals and supplying 37 assists.

He had two years remaining on his PSG contract.

Barcola would be the ⁠latest addition to new manager Iraola’s squad following the close-season arrivals of ⁠Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo on loan, ⁠French centre back Jeremy Jacquet and Spanish forward Victor Munoz.

Liverpool’s attacking options currently include British record signing Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha and ‌Munoz as the Merseyside club adjusts to life after talisman Mohamed Salah’s departure. Forward Hugo Ekitike is ‌sidelined ‌with a long-term injury.

Liverpool host Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The festival began on Friday and was due to continue until Sunday, but a decision was made by organisers to cancel the remainder of the event after the incident .

“We are working with the emergency services, police and the Health and Safety Executive as they establish the circumstances surrounding today’s incident,” the organisers said.

“We are incredibly grateful to everyone who responded, and to our teams and community for the care they have shown one another.”

Christian parent support charity ParentFuel said its people at the festival were all safe.

“We cannot praise the BCF (Big Church Festival) team enough for the way things have been handled,” they said on social media on Saturday morning.

“We are currently sat in the volunteer tent with a brew in hand, worship music being played and the warmth of chatter around us.”

The charity said it was a “freak accident”.

“Life is so precious and so, so short. This weekend brought that ever closer for us all,” they added.

Argentina midfielder Exequiel Palacios has become the first World Cup winner to sign for Ipswich Town after joining from Bayer Leverkusen.

Palacios, 27, left the Bundesliga club for an undisclosed fee and has signed a four-year contract with the Premier League newcomers.

He was part of the Argentina side that both won the World Cup in 2022 and reached the final this summer while he also won the Copa America twice with his country.

“This is a club with great ambition and I am excited to play football in England and compete against some of the best clubs and players in the world,” Palacios said.

Palacios, Ipswich’s 11th signing of the transfer window, started Argentina’s 3-1 win against World Cup debutants Jordan in the group stage in his only appearance at the 2026 tournament.

Ipswich manager Gary O’Neil added: “He is a player who has had real success at the top level of the game, winning the biggest prize of all in the World Cup, as well as major trophies at club level.

“That experience will be vital for us as we continue to work to improve the squad this summer.”