U.S.

July 21 (UPI) — A father and son have been arraigned on charges for kidnapping two federal biologists at gunpoint in California.

Joseph Charles Henrichsen, 49, and his son Phoenix Henrichsen, 23, were in federal court in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday when they were charged with kidnapping a federal employee and aiding and abetting.

The charges stem from the Henrichsens allegedly confronting two female U.S. Forest Service staff biologists last week at Gumboot Lake Campground in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California. Joseph was armed with a rifle when he approached the biologists in a remote area of the forest. He zip-tied their hands behind their backs and ordered them to a trailer nearby where they were held.

When they arrived at the trailer, Phoenix joined them, court documents say.

At one point, Joseph took one of the biologists in the Forest Service Nissan that they were using before the kidnapping and drove her several miles away where he used her phone to call a federal forest ranger. He left a message for the ranger informing them that he had taken two hostages and was armed.

“I’ve taken two fed biologists hostage from the Forest Service,” Joseph said, the affidavit reads. “I’m driving in the ranger vehicle right now. Her hands are behind her [expletive] back, and I’ve got live rounds ready.”

Law enforcement officials responded after the message was received, beginning an hourslong standoff on Friday. The Henrichsens surrendered and were arrested that day after hostage negotiations.

The victims were released safely.

The affidavit accuses Phoenix of aiding and abetting for keeping “watch” of the trailer when his father was not around.

The Henrichsens face a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Aug. 3.

July 20 (UPI) — The United States launched strikes on Iran for the 10th night in a row Monday as U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran would pay for the deaths of three U.S. service members.

U.S. Central Command posted on social media that a new round of strikes had started, while Iranian media reported explosions heard in several locations, including port areas of Chabahar and Konorak on the southeast coast, Bandar Abbas and Qeshm.

Iranian media also reported possible U.S. attacks on Shiraz, an inland city in the southern part of Iran.

Trump said in a social media post earlier Monday that Iran would pay “many times over” for the deaths of U.S. service members and that he’s passed that directive to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Earlier in the day, the Department of Defense identified two U.S. soldiers who were killed Friday by an Iranian strike in Jordan. Another soldier was killed Saturday in Iraq but has not yet been identified, and another is missing.

The Pentagon said Monday that nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured over the last two weeks. Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post that 96% have returned to duty.

“They are determined to get back in the fight,” Parnell wrote. “The vast majority of injuries experienced were minor concussions.”

Parnell’s statement occurred after reports from both the New York Times and CNN about how the Pentagon has reported injuries to U.S. troops in the Iran war. The Times reported that the Defense Department withheld reports on dozens of injuries to troops. CNN said the U.S. military has been slow to report on injuries, partly due to a military website with a delay in updates.

Iran continued to target countries that host U.S. military bases. The Kuwait military said it was intercepting “hostile” missiles and drones Monday afternoon, part of three rounds of Iranian attacks that day.

“The General Staff of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces confirms that any explosions that may be heard are the result of air defense systems intercepting hostile targets,” the military said in a statement.

Jordan said that it intercepted incoming missiles from Iran on Monday as well. The armed forces said the missiles caused no casualties or damage.

Also Monday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations center, which monitors shipping in the Persian Gulf, northern Indian Ocean and Red Sea, reported that a tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz.

July 20 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed orders Monday to impose a new 50% tariff on many Canadian imports, saying it’s because of “discriminatory treatment” of U.S. products.

The tariffs take effect Aug. 19 and affect a wide range of goods including wine, hockey sticks, electrical equipment and concrete.

Trump cited part of the Tariff Act of 1930 that allows a U.S. president to mandate a tariff up to 50% without congressional approval if a country is believed to be discriminating against U.S. goods. However, the law has not been applied this way before, CNN reported.

The Trump administration said the tariffs cover $20 billion worth of imports. They join ongoing tariffs from 15% to 50% imposed by the United States on Canadian steel, aluminum and copper, as well as Canadian softwood lumber, BBC News reported.

Last week, Trump threatened new tariffs on Canada as punishment for the smoke from hundreds of wildfires that drifted over the border and affected some U.S. cities. However, there was no mention of the wildfires in the orders signed Monday.

The tariffs affect all the goods in each category even if they are included under the existing free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The Trump administration named dairy products, U.S. motor vehicles and alcohol Monday as the three U.S. products it says Canada discriminates against.

“President Trump is taking action to hold Canada accountable for its continued discrimination against and unreasonable and unequal treatment of U.S. commerce that has burdened and disadvantaged hard-working Americans,” a statement released by the White House said.

A few key Canadian imports are excluded from the new tariffs. These include energy products, potash, critical minerals, fish and some other goods.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the international tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Trump said at the time that he would find other ways to impose tariffs.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that Canada should retaliate against the new tariffs.

“If these tariffs proceed, Canada should respond tariff fortariff, dollar for dollar,” Ford posted on social media.

July 20 (UPI) — Ismael Zambada Garcia, also called El Mayo, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Monday by a U.S. federal judge.

Zambada Garcia, 76, the co-founder and the former leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, pleaded guilty last year to leading the extensive criminal network, in which he made billions of dollars through illegal drug trafficking and violent crime. He worked with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also called El Chapo, who is also serving life in prison.

Zambada Garcia avoided arrest for decades before authorities captured him in 2024 in El Paso, Texas. His arrest created extensive violence in the Sinaloa state of Mexico as people rushed to fill the power vacuum, The Washington Post reported.

“Ismael Zambada Garcia spent nearly four decades poisoning American communities to make billions of dollars in profit and ordering the murders of anyone who stood in his way,” said Joseph Nocella, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Today, that chapter closes for good.”

Zambada Garcia read a statement in Spanish in his courtroom appearance. He expressed remorse and said his upbringing was in “an environment where violence and crime seemed normal,” The New York Times reported.

“To the next generation, I say: Choose a different path,” he said.

Judge Brian Cogan of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn also ordered Zambada Garcia to forfeit $15 billion, though it’s unlikely that will happen, The Times reported.

Zambada Garcia was arrested after an ally — the son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera — took him onto a plane to allegedly go look at real estate. Instead, they flew over the border to Texas, where federal authorities arrested him. Tensions between U.S. and Mexico authorities continue over the operation, and the Mexican attorney general office said this month that it is investigating if the U.S. government lied about its involvement.

July 20 (UPI) — The Department of Defense on Monday identified the two active-duty U.S. soldiers who were killed in action by an Iranian strike on Friday in Jordan.

The Pentagon announced the deaths of 25-year-old Tyler James Feehan of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and 19-year-old Isabella Gonzales of Carrollton, Texas. They were stationed at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan when it was hit by Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes.

Four more U.S. troops were injured in the strikes.

The deaths of Feehan and Gonzales were the first deaths of U.S. troops since the peace deal between the United States and Iran was briefly met earlier this month. Since the war began in February, 17 U.S. troops have been killed, including a soldier who was killed in Iraq on Saturday. That soldier has not been publicly identified.

Feehan was assigned to the 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command in Fort Bragg, N.C. Gonzales was assigned to the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Command in Ansbach, Germany.

The United States and Iran have traded strikes for nine consecutive nights since the peace agreement between the sides was broken earlier this month. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. strikes over the weekend were in “honor” of the “probably three” soldiers killed in Jordan and Iraq.

U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Saturday that it began launching new airstrikes against Iran at Trump’s direction.

July 20 (UPI) — The average price of a gallon of regular grade gasoline in the United States has again reached $4 on Monday with renewed fighting in Iran.

AAA reported a 13-cent hike in the average gas price over the past week, bringing an end to declining prices. The latest surge comes on the back of the peace deal between the United States and Iran falling apart with both sides reigniting attacks.

The lowest gas prices in the United States on Monday can be found in Indiana, where a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.35. California has the highest average price per gallon at $5.49 and Washington and Hawaii are above $5 per gallon.

The average price of a gallon of gas was $2.98 before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb.28. Prices climbed quickly after that due to Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint in the Middle East oil trade. The average gas price in the United States topped $4.50 in May, marking a four-year high.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, surpassed $90 per barrel on Monday for the first time since early June. The price of Brent crude oil has climbed by 16% in the past week.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil has increased by $12 in July, hitting $82 per barrel.

Aggressions between the United States and Iran have brought the return of the U.S. naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. forces are again targeting any ships using Iranian ports.

U.S. economic data showed improvement beginning in June as talks of a peace agreement heated up. The White House welcomed a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last week that showed consumer prices falling in June.

“Prices are coming way down, and we’re doing a great job,” President Donald Trump told reporters last week. “And remember that for the midterms.”

The decline in consumer prices was largely attributed to falling gas and energy prices. Those prices were also the catalyst for prices surging over the past five months.

KISUMU, Kenya — As U.S. antiabortion groups’ campaign to restrict abortion access at home and abroad has gained strength since President Trump returned to office, his administration is delivering new global momentum to the movement by exporting its view of “family values” to nations overseas.

At the annual March for Life demonstration in January in Washington, Vice President JD Vance announced sweeping new restrictions on U.S. funding for nongovernmental organizations, foreign governments and U.N. agencies that promote access to abortion, gender-affirming care and diversity initiatives overseas. “We’re going to start blocking every international NGO that performs or promotes abortion abroad from receiving a dollar of U.S. money,” he told the crowd.

That effort has been particularly active in Africa, where doctors and advocates now describe an environment of rising harassment, arbitrary detentions and deadly backstreet abortions, with often deadly results for women across the continent.

The expanded restrictions build on the antiabortion advocacy work carried out by conservative U.S. nonprofits abroad — especially in Africa, where healthcare is highly dependent on foreign aid. The region has the world’s highest estimated proportion of unsafe abortions and highest maternal mortality rates — including the highest number of maternal deaths per 100,000 abortions.

The new rules represent a radical expansion of earlier U.S. policy that cut assistance to overseas groups providing abortion-related services. Experts say at least $30 billion in U.S. aid could be affected, reshaping health policies worldwide.

“We’re seeing opportunity here to have a consistently pro-life ethic,” Nicole Hunt of Colorado-based Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian evangelical group, told the Associated Press. “We’ve been influencing health policies for a long time with our foreign aid. This is just a new direction.”

In the crosshairs is an international convention signed by African countries two decades ago declaring safe abortion a human right. Known as the Maputo Protocol, it obliges signatory nations to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal malformation or risk to a woman’s health.

But implementation has been spotty, forcing women to seek illicit procedures. Every year, sub-Saharan Africa records over 6 million unsafe abortions, according to the African Institute for Development Policy.

Emboldened by Trump’s policies, U.S. antiabortion groups now aim to overturn even this limited access to safe abortion.

In Nairobi, Nardos Hagos of the International Planned Parenthood Federation said she is deeply worried for the future.

“We’ve now moved into a new era where we are the ones who are in opposition because the most powerful and influential supporters of reproductive health — the U.S. and a lot of Europe — are now more aligned with anti-rights groups,” she said.

“We’re gonna see more women dying from unsafe abortions.”

Africa is the focus

It’s difficult to track the full scope of the funding U.S. antiabortion charitable groups send to Africa.

Publicly available information from nonprofit tax filings of 17 such groups show money sent to Africa jumped 50% between 2019 and 2022, to over $16 million, according to an analysis by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change, a research group.

And the funding kept growing: The organizations spent almost $9.4 million in Africa during 2023 and 2024, previously unreported data analyzed by the institute show.

That’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” said the institute’s Claire Provost.

“What we’re seeing here is just a fraction of what the real investment on the continent is,” Provost said, noting that unlike other tax-exempt charitable organizations, U.S.-based churches and some religious groups are not required to complete annual financial disclosures detailing revenue, contributions and expenses.

It’s not possible to see “even limited information” about how much money the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, among others, funnel to Africa, she said.

Widely known as the Mormon church, the Salt Lake City-based church is ”increasingly active on the continent, including opposing sexual and reproductive rights issues,” Provost said. With over 1 million followers in Africa, it has held “Strengthening Families” conferences across Africa over the last eight years.

Sean E.R. Donnelly, the church’s communications manager for Africa, said in an AP interview that about a quarter of the $1.5 billion the church spent overseas last year was in Africa, for development projects “with the goal of helping people, especially families,” including in healthcare, education and emergency relief.

Asked about women’s reproductive rights and abortion, he said the church was “not really active” in those areas, but noted the issues may be discussed by its African partners during church-sponsored conferences.

“We have the deputy prime minister, we have the ministries of gender, we have all the ministers who are relevant to family, and we’re helping them … as they craft policy and strategy to make sure that we protect the family,” Donnelly said of the conferences.

Asked about the church’s position on abortion, he sent a statement outlining that it generally opposes elective abortion in most cases but allows exceptions for rape, incest or danger to a woman’s health in counseling its members. He said via email that the church conducts no activities related to abortion and reproductive rights.

Last year’s church-sponsored conference took place in Sierra Leone at a time when the country was close to decriminalizing abortion. But pressure from local religious lobbies stalled the process, local rights groups said.

Activists and rights groups have raised the alarm over the influence of local religious groups, whose strategies mirror those of some conservative U.S. Christian groups. In response to AP’s questions about the conference and any pressures around abortion and other reproductive rights issues, Donnelly said, “This is not how the church operates in Africa or globally.”

He also referred AP to the church’s Caring Report, which outlines its humanitarian work globally and does not mention the conference.

It’s tricky to determine how the U.S. money is spent once it reaches Africa because of loose requirements on disclosing financial data in African countries.

Focus on the Family spent $370,000 in Africa between 2019 and 2023, according to the Institute for Journalism and Social Change, which says that probably does not fully capture the scope of the group’s influence or work. Focus on the Family’s Hunt said its mission is “to change hearts and minds on abortion” globally, but she declined to provide details of activities in Africa.

Harassment of reproductive rights groups

Hannah Ruguru vowed to help women get abortions safely after losing her sister to a backstreet procedure. But her work at a reproductive health clinic in Kisumu in rural western Kenya has proved increasingly hazardous.

She’s been screamed at by protesters and encountered so much abuse on Facebook that she deleted her account, she said.

“Sometimes you can get scared,” Ruguru said. But “at the end of the day, I’m helping women.”

Marie Stopes International, which runs the clinic where Ruguru works, said in a 2024 report that staff in several African countries described online and legal attacks from U.S.-based groups and U.S.-funded local organizations. In Congo, it said, health workers have been detained for days for providing legally permissible services before being released without charge.

“The extent of the opposition has made abortion providers fearful of coming into work,” the report said.

In Ethiopia, the group said, the head of the local office of U.S.-based Family Watch International has “targeted and trolled members of our senior leadership team on social media,” and released YouTube videos promoting antiabortion misinformation.

In Kenya, the names and addresses of staff at reproductive rights organizations have been published online, accusing them of murder.

The owner of a private abortion clinic in Nairobi said staff members have been harassed by police and detained. Officials demand bribes, threatening charges if they don’t pay up, the owner said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions.

Musoba Kitui, regional director of Ipas Africa Alliance, which promotes reproductive rights and access to safe abortion care, said the changes in U.S. foreign aid policy combined with “this advancing American interest in ideology in Africa is really concerning.”

“We think the consequences are going to be dire,” Kitui said, especially for women and marginalized communities such as LGBTQ+ people.

‘It’s a culture war’

Last year, antiabortion Christian groups from the U.S., Europe and Africa and high-ranking Kenyan officials gathered in Nairobi for a conference on “Promoting and Protecting Family Values in Challenging Times.” Poland-based antiabortion group Ordo Iuris handed out a guide in four languages, including Swahili, with tips on lobbying international organizations, including the United Nations, European Union and African Union.

Travis Weber, vice president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based evangelical group active in antiabortion advocacy, said he traveled to Nairobi to “defend the family as God designed it.”

Charles Kanjama, vice chairman of African Christian Professionals Forum, the conference organizer, said that, previously, international aid often supported reproductive rights — but times have changed.

“We are hoping that … we can start attracting money from people who think like us,” said Kanjama, among Africa’s most prominent antiabortion figures. “It’s a culture war, really.”

Indeed, the antiabortion agenda is gaining momentum. In June, representatives of 20 African countries finalized a draft charter at a conference in Ghana that calls for rejecting sexual and reproductive health rights. It will be voted on by the African Union next year. Family Watch International’s co-founder, Sharon Slater, was among those fundraising for the charter’s passage at the European Parliament in Brussels this year.

Legal gray area

In Kenya, one of Africa’s richest countries, seven women die every day on average from complications of unsafe abortions, according to the African Population and Health Research Center.

The 2010 Kenyan Constitution permits abortion when a woman’s health or life is threatened. Subsequent court decisions have also allowed abortions in cases of rape, incest or serious threat to a woman’s mental health.

But there’s a major legal gray area. Kenya’s penal code, which dates to the colonial era, continues to criminalize abortion providers and women seeking the procedure, who can face up to 14 years in prison.

Most public hospitals don’t perform abortions, leaving women the option of pricey private clinic procedures or risky illicit methods, healthcare officials said.

In May, an appeals court in Kenya overturned a ruling that affirmed access to abortion as a fundamental right — a case led by Kanjama, who said the decision “restored constitutional balance.”

The Kenyan Health Ministry, Justice Ministry and the government spokesperson’s office did not reply to repeated AP requests for comment, including detailed questions sent via email.

The U.S. State Department, in response to an AP request for comment on the Trump administration’s new rules governing American aid overseas, said: “The American people expect their tax dollars to support programs that save lives … and reflect American values, not fund abortion-related activities, left-wing social agendas, or wasteful overseas bureaucracies.”

“U.S. assistance continues to support a wide range of maternal and child health services as part of the America First Global Health Strategy,” it said in a statement.

The toll of unsafe abortions

In Kenya, doctors are obligated to treat women suffering from post-abortion complications, often from underground procedures, including bleeding, infections and the loss of their wombs — and it’s those cases that often end up in public hospitals.

“By the time the women come, we are often dealing with a life-threatening situation,” said Dominic Omollo, the reproductive health coordinator in Bondo, western Kenya.

Even as the stated aim of U.S., international and Africa-based antiabortion groups is to protect life, activists and healthcare providers say that, in reality, the result is more unsafe abortions and more women dying.

In Karabok, a village in rural Kenya, two trees were planted at the site where Mary Olouch is buried, just feet from where the 25-year-old bled to death after an illicit abortion.

“She did not open up to anyone,” said Loice Ochieng, a community health volunteer in charge of family planning in the village.

Olouch already had a young child when she realized she was pregnant. She didn’t tell her husband. When he came home one evening, he found her bleeding and rushed her to the hospital, but it was too late.

Olouch did not qualify for an abortion in a public hospital and couldn’t afford a private clinic on her meager income selling fish. Abortion carries enormous stigma in rural communities, and husbands often don’t allow women to use contraceptives, Ochieng said.

After Olouch’s death, women started to talk more openly about abortion in Karabok, where, for many, even uttering the word had been taboo, Ochieng said.

Now, she said, if women “have a problem, they come to me, they ask. Because they have seen that this thing can cause death.”

Pronczuk and Beaty write for the Associated Press and reported from Kisumu and New York, respectively. AP writers Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi and Caitlin Kelly in Freetown, Sierra Leone, contributed to this report.

BEIRUT  — President Trump long railed against forever wars.

For years, whether as president or candidate, he flayed electoral opponents and previous presidents with his signature barbs, calling their entanglements a “complete waste of time” (Afghanistan), “the worst single mistake ever made in the history of our country” (Iraq) and “stupid” (Ukraine).

Yet he now appears to be stumbling into a forever war of his own.

From the first days of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, Trump and his officials insisted their adventure abroad would be the exception, that the conflict would end in a matter of weeks.

Now, 4½ months later, after a torturous, start-stop vacillation between truce and war, the U.S. is pressing on with a fight that has no end in sight — or even a clear definition of what an acceptable end would be.

In the last week, the ceasefire collapsed, with the U.S. and Iran trading daily waves of strikes, leading to the deaths of two American servicemen on Friday when Iranian ballistic missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where U.S. assets and personnel are stationed.

On Sunday, as the U.S. and Iran launched more air assaults, the U.S. announced that a service member was killed Saturday in Iraq during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone.

On March 9, the remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Ky., then the seventh U.S. service member to die in combat during the Iran war, are transferred at Dover Air Force Base, Del.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

The deaths in Jordan were the first combat fatalities since the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. One soldier remains missing, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command.

Including the most recent casualties, 17 U.S. service members have been killed and more than 430 wounded since the war began, the Pentagon says.

In Iran, at least 57 people have been killed and more than 517 injured in U.S. attacks in the last three weeks, according to Iranian health authorities. The death toll since the beginning of the war has surpassed 3,500, and more than 27,000 have been wounded.

The U.S. and Israeli militaries have — in the telling of Trump and various officials — decimated Iran’s navy and air defenses, eviscerated multiple layers of its leadership and bombed tens of thousands of targets across the country.

Despite that military pressure, and Trump’s insistence that members of Iran’s leadership “want to make a deal” (he’s said that an accord was on hand no less than 46 times since the start of the war), Tehran has refused to surrender its nuclear and missile arsenals and continues to support its regional militia allies.

Iran has also created a new pressure point to use against adversaries by blockading the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas flowed before the war. And it has widened the war’s footprint by targeting countries hosting American military assets.

Trump has vowed to expand bombings to include civilian infrastructure such as power plants and bridges in what he says is a bid to force Iran into negotiations once more.

He has also brought additional forces to the Middle East. According to Centcom, there are now 50,000 troops in the region, along with 20 naval warships and hundreds of warplanes.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, declined to comment on the deployments, though on Sunday the New York Times reported that the U.S. was sending to the region F-16 fighter jets from Germany and stealthy F-35 jets from Britain.

For observers, those moves signal that Trump is falling into an escalation trap.

“From Trump’s perspective, the easiest way to demonstrate resolve and power is by just bombing Iran and seeing what that brings about,” said Andreas Boehm, a Middle East expert and lecturer on international law at University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Although those strikes seem tactically impressive, they have not helped him strategically, he said.

“In reality, it doesn’t change the situation because the Iranians won’t budge. And if you confuse tactical and strategic success, then you’re not going anywhere in any kind of war,” Boehm said.

An escalation on Washington’s part is also certain to spark a similar reaction from Tehran, said Vali Nasr, professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

“Iran gets a vote here,” Nasr said, adding Iran could up the ante by closing Bab al Mandab, the vital strait connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. It could also widen attacks on infrastructure in Persian Gulf countries — moves that would trigger an even bigger ripple effect across global markets.

“Trump thought wars in the Middle East would be like Venezuela: a big in-and-out without a prolonged war,” Nasr said, referring to the Trump administration’s strike that saw U.S. forces abduct Venezuelan leader Nicholás Maduro and force the remaining members of his government to submit to U.S. control.

“And the reality is that it’s backfired,” he said.

Trump is not the first American president to think a foreign engagement wouldn’t last long. Whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq, U.S. leaders dispatched troops on operations they thought would last weeks or months, dismissing warnings that they would be bogged down in years-long occupations.

Iran would be an especially sticky quagmire if Trump were to commit ground troops.

The country’s area — about 636,000 square miles — is more than double the size of Afghanistan, almost four times the size of Iraq, and five times the size of Vietnam — all nations where the U.S. struggled to prevail against adversaries not as well equipped and arguably less ideologically motivated than its adversaries in Iran.

Meanwhile, for a president whose central foreign policy campaign promise was no more wars, the growing number of casualties, along with the escalating damage inflicted by Iran on U.S. assets and allies, has exposed cracks in the support the Teflon-like Trump has enjoyed from his advocates.

Onetime MAGA acolytes, including flagship conservative figures such as Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Alex Jones, have already turned on the president over the war and other issues. And Republican figures who had tied their star to Trump fear a drubbing in the midterms so long as the war continues.

If negotiations were to resume, it’s unclear whether Trump and his coterie of negotiators have the stamina or the foreign service expertise to bring about an accord.

After all, the 2015 Obama-era deal aimed at reining in Tehran’s nuclear program took 600 days and hundreds of diplomats and technical experts to negotiate.

With Trump relying on unconventional fixers such as his son-in-law Jared Kushner and real estate investor Steve Witkoff, not to mention his evisceration of the diplomatic corps, an agreement of that scale appears unlikely.

“Everything is dependent on the mood of one man,” Nasr said.

“It’s not the system that’s making the decision; it’s not the country making the decision,” he said. “It’s one man, and it depends how he feels like at one particular point in time.”

Tehran too may be less amenable to negotiations with Trump, given his history: During his first term, he pulled out of the nuclear deal and ordered the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, a leading Iranian general.

In his second term, he launched bombing campaigns on Iran during negotiations — twice. And Iran accused the U.S. of repeatedly violating the April ceasefire and the memorandum of understanding signed in June.

Asked on NewsNation on Sunday about Iran’s announcement that it would no longer abide by the memorandum, Trump said, “I couldn’t care less.”

Such factors, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director for the International Crisis Group, lead to a formula for prolonged conflict.

“It’s a forever war in the making, and the reason why is that Trump has proven he’s impossible to negotiate with,” Vaez said.

If an agreement as superficial as the memorandum of understanding — which deferred thornier issues for late negotiations — was derailed, then there’s little option other than repeated cycles of violence.

“Once you’ve proven that diplomacy doesn’t work,” he said, “then there’s only war.”

July 20 (UPI) — Taylor Farms said late Sunday the Trump administration mistakenly informed it that a sample of its shredded iceberg lettuce tested positive for a parasite amid a multi-state outbreak that prompted the U.S.-based fresh-produce giant to initiate a recall of the salad staple distributed to 27 states.

The Food and Drug Administration reversed the finding Sunday, determining that the purported positive test for the microscopic Cyclospora parasite, which causes the intestinal illness cyclosporiasis, was a false positive.

“Today, FDA apologized to us,” the company said in a statement.

“Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake.”

Taylor Farms had initiated the voluntary recall Friday after federal health investigators linked shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico to a multi-state cyclosporiasis outbreak through a traceback investigation.

At least 1,644 people in five states have been infected, including 94 hospitalizations, since May 13, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said there have been no fatalities.

Federal health investigators have linked the illnesses to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

The FDA said Friday that its traceback investigation identified the supplier as Taylor Farms de Mexico. The company then initiated the voluntary recall.

On Saturday, federal investigators said a sample collected during targeted import surveillance tested positive for Cyclospora. The FDA said the produce was not part of the initial recall and investigators were working to identify whether any of the lot was available in commerce.

A day later, Taylor Farms said it was informed of the FDA’s “mistake.”

“To be clear, at this moment, the FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora,” it said.

The FDA told media it had discovered the false positive after rechecking the results of the purported positive sample.

“As of July 19, 2026, there are no confirmed positive sample results for product testing for Cyclospora,” the FDA said in a statement, NBC News reported.

Taylor Farms said it had completed the voluntary recall, which was limited to iceberg lettuce grown and processed in central Mexico, and that all of its other produce is available for purchase.

“Our thoughts remain with everyone who has fallen ill in this outbreak,” it said.

“We are committed to working with public health authorities as the ongoing outbreak investigation continues.”

July 19 (UPI) — Second lady Usha Vance gave birth Sunday to her fourth child, JD Vance announced, making him the first sitting vice president in more than 150 years to welcome the birth of a child.

“We are excited to announce that our baby boy, Alec Neel Vance, was born this morning,” JD said in a statement.

“Usha and the baby are happy and healthy, and our kids are overjoyed to meet their little brother.”

The Vances have three other children: two sons, Ewan and Vivek, ages 9 and 6, respectively; and a 4-year-old daughter, Mirabel.

“The incredible military doctors and staff members of Walter Reed [National Military Medical Center] and the White House Medical Center and the White House Medical Unit have been a blessing,” JD continued.

“We are deeply thankful for all they have done for our family.”

Usha — a lawyer who resigned from Munger, Tolles & Olson on the day her husband was tapped to be Donald Trump‘s running mate in 2024 — announced her fourth pregnancy in January with a due date of late July.

With the birth, the Vances became the first vice presidential couple to welcome a child while in office since Vice President Schuyler Colfax’s wife, second lady Ellen Maria Colfax, gave birth to Schuyler Colfax III in 1870.

July 19 (UPI) — A majority of delegates have committed to voting for Troy Jackson to give him the Democratic nomination, replacing the beleaguered Graham Platner in Maine’s U.S. Senate race.

While Jackson’s nomination isn’t official — the Democratic Party is set to hold its U.S. Senate nominating convention Saturday — his name dominated county-level meetings this weekend, Politico reported. The swing in his favor led Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to drop out of the race Sunday.

The Washington Post reported that 600 delegates will vote on the nominee at Saturday’s convention in Bangor.

Maine Democrats have been scrambling to find a replacement for Platner after he dropped out of the race earlier this month under pressure from those who previously endorsed him. A former partner of his accused him of sexually assaulting her while he was drunk, an allegation he has denied.

Whoever gets the Democratic nomination will face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins. The Republican has won election to the U.S. Senate five times prior, and if a Democrat unseats her, it could put control of the upper chamber within Democrats’ reach.

Jackson, 58, ran earlier this year for the gubernatorial nomination, but lost out to Hannah Pingree. She will face Republican Bobby Charles and Independent Richard Bennett in the general election.

Jackson adjusted his gubernatorial campaign for the Senate race, facing Bellows and Nirav Shah, who also lost out in the gubernatorial primary.

In a video statement to supporters on Facebook, Jackson said he was surprised at his success in the Senate race.

“I’ve been getting text messages all day about, you know, what a great job I did, and I didn’t do a [expletive] thing,” he said. “All of you just smoked it.”

Iran accelerated oil exports through Asia after the United States temporarily eased restrictions in mid-June, allowing the country to move an estimated 70 million barrels of crude before sanctions were reinstated, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing analysts and shipping data.

MIAMI — Cuban dissident and Grammy-winning musical artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on condition that he leave his country.

Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — Homeland and Life — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

The United States granted him parole into the country last week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement, named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

He was arrested July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, a designation the Cuban government rejected.

Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released earlier this month. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were unsure of his location or whether he truly had been released.

His said his first stop on American soil would be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami to make an offering.

Other political prisoners remained behind bars in Cuba, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara’s release would lead to Pérez also being freed.

Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.

July 19 (UPI) — The United Nations’ nuclear energy agency said Sunday it’s investigating Iran’s allegation that the U.S. military struck a nuclear power plant under construction as part of renewed fighting after the deaths of two U.S. service members.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it reached out to the Iranian government about the reported attacks on the Darkhovin Power Plant in southern Iran on Sunday morning. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said U.S. forces hit the site, which was under construction.

“The facility is in the very early stages of construction and contained no nuclear material when last visited by the IAEA,” the agency said in a post on X.

“While the reported attack is not believed to pose any radiological risk, [IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi] reiterates call for military restraint in the vicinity of all nuclear-related sites.”

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization first began work on the Darkhovin Power Plant in 2022, but construction didn’t officially start until March 2026, CNN reported, citing the World Nuclear Association.

The United States ordered fresh airstrikes on Iranian targets Saturday after two U.S. service members were killed in Iranian attacks Friday in Jordan. A third service member was missing.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, warned U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the international airport or seaport in Aqaba, and all military bases in Jordan. Jordan’s military said Sunday afternoon it intercepted three Iranian missiles, and a third landed in a remote area.

Aqaba is situated on Jordan’s southern coast, within a few miles of the border with Israel. The Israeli military warned of potential spillover of Iranian attacks into Israel, The Times of Israel reported Sunday morning.

“There may be spillover into Israeli territory as a result of the fire,” the military said.

For the first time in U.S. military history, uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) were used as a strike weapon in combat. The use of Saronic Corsair USVs took place July 12 during a series of attacks against “dozens” of Iranian targets, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). It came as the U.S. and Iran have continued to trade strikes primarily related to control over the Strait of Hormuz, with President Donald Trump proclaiming he wants to take over the strategic chokepoint and reinstate the naval blockade on Iranian ports. Meanwhile, Iran has also been launching attacks against several Arab nations in the most recent flare-up of hostilities as a shaky ceasefire continues to disintegrate.

“Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” the command stated on X Monday morning. “Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations. Last night’s strikes degraded Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial shipping.”

This attack is the latest iteration of the U.S. Navy’s use of drone boats in combat. Last month, a Saronic Corsair USV rescued the crew of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache that crashed in the Gulf of Oman after it was downed by Iran. That was the first known instance of a drone boat being used to recover personnel as part of a search and rescue mission, and has major implications for these operations going forward. 

“The surface drone that assisted in last night’s rescue of the Apache crew off the coast of Oman was a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59,” U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, told TWZ at the time. “The task force began fielding these drones in theater in late March.”

Historic sea drone rescue near Strait of Hormuz for Apache helicopter crew members

Established in 2021, Task Force 59 is a testbed unit that is tasked with experimenting with the integration of new uncrewed and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into day-to-day naval operations across the Middle East. It appears that the task force is starting to operationalize those technologies more broadly. Using USVs in an attack role could help reduce the burden on aircraft and crews for strikes, at least against certain targets out to sea and along the coast. Above all else, it creates another vector for kinetic operations against the enemy, which complicates their defensive plans.

In a recent interview with TWZ, Saronic co-founder Rob Lehman declined to provide any details about this mission set or any others Corsair was conducting in the region. However, he did say its success will reverberate across the USV industry.

“I think the tangible impact to the industry is that autonomous systems are now perceived as real credible capabilities rather than a science and technology kind of sideshow where we’re desperately trying to prove that the tech can play a role in these types of operations,” Lehman told us. “So my hope is that not just for Saronic, but all of our partners on the commercial side, that it’s an accelerant to getting more of these capabilities in the war fighters’ hands.” 

As we have frequently reported, Ukraine has used USVs to devastating effect on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Magura line of drones, among others, has played a key role in this campaign.

Many successful attacks have been recorded against Black Sea Fleet vessels and facilities, forcing the general evacuation of Russian naval assets from occupied Crimea to bases in Russia proper.

The Houthi rebels of Yemen actually pioneered the operational use of kamikaze USVs years ago. We first reported about this capability in January 2017, when an explosive-laden Houthi USV struck a Saudi frigate. Before that, Iran developed various crude kamikaze USVs and those capabilities soon migrated to their Houthi proxies, which put them to use in the Red Sea for the first time.

You can see the January 2017 attack in the video below.

فيديو يؤكد الهجوم الانتحاري على الفرقاطة السعودية

As we have frequently noted, the U.S. and Iran signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 17. The MoU provided a 60-day extension of the ceasefire to iron out an agreement to end fighting throughout the region, including Lebanon, prevent Iran from seeking nuclear weapons, end U.S. sanctions and resume the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, among other points.

Control over the Strait has proven to be the biggest flashpoint, as evidenced by the aforementioned flare-up of fighting.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has continued to claim it controls the Strait.

As we noted earlier in this piece, Trump just proclaimed that the U.S. would take over the Strait.

“We hit them very hard last night,” Trump told Fox News. “Every time they send a drone, we hit them very hard. But we had a deal. What nobody knows, we had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard, and we’re going to keep the Strait, and we’ll probably run it.”

“We’ll become the guardian of the Strait,” the American leader added. “Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the Strait.”

Trump suggested that the U.S. be paid for this effort.

“And we should be reimbursed for that,” he posited. “When we do that, we’re going to be reimbursed because the other nations are very wealthy.”

Trump also took to his Truth Social network to say that he is reinstating the naval blockade on Iranian ports that was removed when the MoU was signed last month. He added that the U.S. will impose a toll on shipping.

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” the president proffered. “The process and formation will begin immediately.”

The U.S. military using drone boats in a kinetic strike role sets a new precedent not just for operations in the CENTCOM region, but also those in other flashpoints, including the Pacific. It comes as the Pentagon has adopted a number of other capabilities that have been ‘borrowed’ from other conflicts, including the first use of one-way attack drones loosely based on Iran’s Shahed-136, for instance. But it is interesting that these kamikaze drone boats were not deployed at the start of the war, when sea and shore targets were plentiful. That points to the Pentagon still racing to catch-up with some weapons developments from conflict zones overseas or at least at opening the aperture for how and when those technologies are used operationally.

UPDATE: 12:26 PM EDT –

The video released by CENTCOM this morning appears to show one of the Corsair USVs attacking what looks to be a Ghadir class diesel-electric midget submarine.

Given the frequency of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s key naval base at Bandar Abbas during this conflict, it is unclear how Iran still had any of these vessels left.

As we previously reported, U.S. forces apparently sunk another Ghadir class boat in March. It was struck by an AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a U.S. official told TWZ. At the time, we questioned how many Ghadir class submarines were in Iran’s inventory before the current conflict. However, prior estimates had generally put the size of that fleet at between 16 and 20 hulls.

The Ghadir class boat in the new CENTCOM video was sitting on the dock, so it is possible Iran pulled it out after the ceasefire went into effect. 

UPDATE: 1:01 PM EDT –

Saronic released a statement.

“The U.S. military has confirmed that Saronic Corsairs were used by U.S. Central Command in operations against Iran. According to CENTCOM, three military variant Corsair unmanned surface vessels (USVs) struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility at Bandar Abbas Naval Base — the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations,” the company stated. “We are proud that our technology supported this mission and helped degrade threats to commercial shipping. Saronic remains committed to delivering autonomous maritime systems that strengthen the security of the United States and its allies.”

UPDATE 2:38 PM EDT –

CENTCOM provided an update on the blockade.

“At the Commander in Chief’s direction, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will resume blockading maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on July 14 at 4 p.m. ET,” the command stated on X. “CENTCOM forces will enforce the blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas. The U.S. military continues to support traffic flow through regional waters for all vessels not violating the blockade.”

“The resumption of the U.S. blockade against Iran follows the initial implementation from April 13 to June 18,” the command added. “CENTCOM forces redirected more than 140 compliant vessels, disabled nine non-compliant ships, and allowed over 50 commercial vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass through the blockade during the two-month period.”

“All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches,” CENTCOM noted. “Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice.”

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

July 18 (UPI) — Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei called the United States the “Great Satan,” ramping up the war of words amid an actual war in the Persian Gulf.

“Today, the Great Satan has once again revealed its true, unmasked face, so that this dark episode of criminality and broken promises serves as yet another indisputable testament to the U.S.’s dishonesty, irrationality, unreliability, and malicious nature,” a post on X from Khamenei’s account said Saturday.

He also said, in another post: “Coercion, totalitarianism, and brutality are inseparable components of the U.S. creed and doctrine.”

On his Telegram channel, Khamenei said, “The Great Satan has once again revealed its malicious nature.

“The repeated breaches of the agreement by the Great Satan [the U.S.] regarding the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the Presidents of Iran and the United States have once again laid bare a fundamental truth: the signature of the U.S. President is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility. It further reaffirms that coercion, totalitarianism, and brutality are inseparable components of the U.S. creed and doctrine,” he said.

“The Great Satan” is an epithet for the United States and was coined by supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in November 1979, one day after 66 American diplomats and civilians were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Most of the hostages were held for 444 days.

Iran and the United States have increased strikes in the region for the past week. Both countries are enforcing blockades in the Strait of Hormuz: Iran is preventing ships from passing, and the United States is blocking Iranian ships and ports. The strait is a vital waterway for oil and gas transport.

As of this writing, President Donald Trump hasn’t responded on his social media channel.

July 18 (UPI) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mandani on Saturday said his government is reviewing whether it could legally arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over accusations of war crimes.

Netanyahu is expected to visit the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the prime minister’s arrest over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including starvation and attacking a civilian population.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani told The New York Times. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court, and what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these past many years.”

Mandani said his legal team is reviewing the city’s options.

“We’re not talking about a personal assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu,” the mayor told The Times. “We’re talking about the International Criminal Court and the fact that they have a warrant out for this prime minister’s arrest, and I think it’s important to talk about the weight that that has as a charge and that also, as the mayor of New York City, I’ll be following the laws of New York City.”

Netanyahu has denied the ICC charges and disputes the court’s jurisdiction.

In a previous interview, the prime minister claimed without evidence that Mandani is a Hamas supporter.

“He is with the terror actors,” he told WABC. “I think, secretly, he hates America.”

Michael Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., called Mandani’s comments “pure political theater.”

“The U.S. is not party to the Rome Statute that underlies the ICC,” he wrote on X, adding, “The U.N. Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government.”

Two U.S. troops were killed in action and one remains missing in Jordan on Friday while defending against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks, U.S. Central Command announced on X. Another “four American service members were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals. They have since been discharged. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty.”

“Out of respect for the families, CENTCOM is withholding additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified,” the command added.

CENTCOM did not say where in Jordan, however, yesterday, CBS News reported that “Iran attacked at least two Jordanian bases this week, resulting in several American service members being injured in the attack after their facility was struck.”

We noted yesterday that data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) at 10:59 PM EDT indicated a fire adjacent to the runway near an area where aircraft are parked at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. However, TWZ cannot independently verify what happened at the base and if any equipment was destroyed or damaged and how personnel there were affected. We’ve reached out to CENTCOM for answers.

We reached out to CENTCOM for confirmation.

Video emerged on social media purporting to show attacks on the base.

Muwaffaq Salti, as we have frequently reported, has come under attack numerous times. In March, CNN obtained imagery from Planet Labs showing an AN/TPY-2 radar damaged, or even possibly destroyed, following an Iranian attack there.

The air base has long been a major regional hub for U.S. operations, and is being very actively utilized in the current conflict. It hosts the greatest concentration of U.S. tactical aircraft in the region, and thus is an extremely important target, where, as we pointed out last night, even one ballistic missile landing on an apron could destroy multiple prized aircraft and take the lives of U.S. service members or cause injuries.

Iran also hit Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia yesterday, Axios reporter Barak Ravid stated on X.

In addition, officials in Kuwait yesterday said one of the country’s power and water desalination plants “was attacked as a result of the Iranian aggression…leading to a fire and damage to the plant’s facilities and several electricity generating units.”

“The fire is now under control and repairs are ongoing,” the Kuwait government added.

The two deaths and the injuries came as the conflict between the U.S. and Iran is escalating rapidly, with each side now attacking critical infrastructure and Iran intensifying strikes on U.S. bases across the region.

Amid the fighting, “Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Qaribabadi stated that Tehran has suspended its commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Washington as United States attacks continue,” the official Fars News Agency reported.