US & Canada

Fire containment has reached 27 percent in the rampant wildfire that first erupted in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the city of Reno in the state of Nevada in the United States. At least seven people – three first responders and four civilians – have been injured.

The blaze first broke out on Saturday and exploded in size by Sunday, destroying at least 32 homes and damaging six as it spread perilously close to dense neighbourhoods. Local officials, speaking at an afternoon news briefing on Monday, said those numbers are sure to rise as assessment teams begin to survey the charred areas.

They also said the fire had no new growth and has held steady at about 60 square kilometres (23 square miles) since it burned out of control on Sunday.

“We are making progress,” assured US Forest Service District Ranger Matt Zumstein.

Videos posted on social media showed the smouldering ruins of homes and cars, with only a scorched basketball hoop still standing.

By Monday, the number of residents under evacuation orders and warnings was lowered to about 63,000, down from more than 90,000 people when the blaze first mushroomed over the weekend. While winds have eased, there are still concerns that gusts could propel the flames through dry brush into newly developed neighbourhoods in Nevada’s largest city outside of metro Las Vegas. Reno is home to about 280,000 people.

Schools across the local area were closed because of the evacuations and to keep roads clear for emergency crews.

‘Like nothing I’ve seen before’: Reno faces third wildfire in two weeks

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve said the way the fire spread so quickly at its peak had her fearing for the worst.

“It lit up these areas like nothing I’ve seen before,” she said Monday, adding, “it took your breath away, in the worst way”.

This is the third large wildfire in the craggy, high-desert region north of Reno in just the past two weeks – driven completely by human behaviour, according to fire officials. They have not disclosed whether the Hawk Fire, which is what the blaze is known as due to having started near the Hawk Meadow Trail, was intentionally set or accidental. Much of the area that burned was sagebrush and grass.

Resident Crystal Hallock, 53, has lost her home to a fire twice in under a decade. She moved into the rebuilt house in 2019, a year after an electrical fire burned it down.

Nevada’s governor quickly declared a state of emergency in Washoe County over the weekend after mobilising the National Guard to help with aerial firefighting and protecting evacuated neighbourhoods northwest of downtown Reno. But at one roadblock, residents expressed frustration that they could not get back into their homes, according to The Associated Press news agency.

“There’s no fire here! Why are the National Guard here?” a driver yelled.

Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said he understands that some residents are frustrated that they can’t get home, but the danger isn’t over yet. “It just takes that little breeze and one ember,” he said.

Reno is southwest of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, site of the annual Burning Man festival, which begins on August 30.

Many who travel to Burning Man make Reno a regular pit stop. Organisers on Monday requested that attendees not take hotel rooms and other resources away from fire evacuees, while being mindful of closures.

“Treat our neighbors, first responders, hospitality workers and everyone affected by this emergency with patience and care,” a Burning Man statement read.

Western wildfire risk stays high

Much of Nevada’s western edge is under an increased risk of wildfires this week because of high winds and low relative humidity, the National Interagency Fire Center said. The National Weather Service says the region will see warm, dry and breezy conditions, and that critical fire weather conditions are possible in the week’s latter half. Reno sits at an elevation of 1,370 metres (4,500 feet).

Extremely dry conditions across the American West have sparked a rash of wildfires this summer. Fires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area in early August.

Nationwide wildfires have topped 50,000 this year, marking a 10-year high for the same period, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir spent Monday moving through the power corridors of Tehran: the presidency, parliament, the Supreme National Security Council, and the foreign and interior ministries.

He met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is Tehran’s chief negotiator in talks with the United States to end their now six-month-long war.

But amid a deadlock in those peace negotiations, many analysts say that Munir’s true test as mediator will lie in his ability to use his position as one of the region’s most powerful military leaders to convince his Iranian counterparts in olive uniforms to agree to a return to talks with Washington.

Days before Munir’s visit, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told a gathering of doctors in Tehran that it was time to end the war while Iran held the advantage, a message aimed as much at Tehran’s own security establishment as at Washington.

“It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity,” he said, adding that “the whole world acknowledges our victory”.

Hours later, on August 21, the chief of the general staff of Iran’s armed forces, Major-General Ali Abdollahi, promised “revolutionary, crushing, regret-inducing and devastating” responses to any American miscalculation.

It was a sharp illustration of the gap between Iran’s president and the men now running its military — one that Munir will need to also navigate, analysts say.

And that’s why Munir’s most significant meeting on Monday might have been with General Mohsen Rezaei, a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the newly appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Rezaei is essentially the bridge between the military and Khamenei.

State of the war

Munir’s visit to Tehran came on a day when the region and the world were bracing for US President Donald Trump’s threatened “economic D-Day” sanctions against Iran, accompanied by a threatened punishment for all countries that continue to trade with Tehran.

Later in the day, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled “Operation Economic Outcast“, a sweeping sanctions campaign targeting Iran’s digital assets, gold, aviation, technology and shipping networks.

But while warning other countries to sever trade ties with Iran, he held back from actually announcing any penalties for those nations, acknowledging that such a step would “blow up the global financial system”.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking the same day, kept the option of renewed strikes open.

“If we need to use kinetic strikes, we’ll use them. If Iran is foolish enough to overplay their hand or mess with the American military, we’ll do what we need to do,” he said.

It’s unclear whether Munir’s visit helped stave off broader US action against Iran and its trading partners.

But the timing was significant, analysts point out. Munir travelled to Tehran days after taking a phone call from United States President Donald Trump, who reportedly asked Islamabad to use its influence to bring Iran back to the table.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the one-day visit had produced “comprehensive discussions” on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the war.

Iranian officials, the ISPR added, “appreciated Pakistan’s constructive role and sincere efforts”.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who travelled with Munir, went further, calling the talks “very positive and productive” and saying “significant progress was made”.

A reshuffled Iranian military

This was his fourth visit to Tehran this year, but his first since Iran’s military hierarchy changed earlier this month.

On August 10, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei installed Abdollahi as chief of the general staff and moved Rezaei into the Supreme National Security Council. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has held his post since March, when his predecessor was killed in the war’s opening strikes.

It is these military men that analysts say are now shaping Iran’s war moves, potentially giving a fellow man in uniform an edge over traditional diplomats in convincing Tehran to get back to talks.

“It is increasingly the IRGC and the wider security establishment driving decisions on war and peace during this crisis,” Ahmed Saeed, a former vice admiral in Pakistan’s navy and a defence analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Naqvi, the interior minister, has travelled to Tehran eight times since April without those visits producing a substantial breakthrough.

But unlike him, Munir is not a politician. He’s a general who appears to enjoy the trust of both the Iranian leadership and, crucially, Trump — who has described the Pakistani army chief as his “favourite field marshal”.

“The call [to Munir a few days ago] was initiated by Trump himself, requesting Pakistani leadership use its influence to bring Iran back to the table,” Saeed said.

Warm words, no movement

What Iranian officials actually told Munir, in accounts carried by Iranian state media, differed little from what they have been telling their own broadcasters all week.

“We distrust America, and it must change its behaviour,” Rezaei told Munir, according to IRNA.

Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, was blunter.

“We are pursuing the implementation of the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, and it is America that must adhere to its commitments based on the Memorandum of Understanding,” he told Munir, according to IRNA.

Pezeshkian, meanwhile, pressed Munir to tell Washington to “correct its tone and approach”, warning that “relying on force and bullying will only complicate the process”, according to Tasnim, another Iranian outlet.

Two tracks, one strait

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi is also expected in Tehran today for a separate round of talks focused specifically on the Strait of Hormuz, a track that has run alongside Pakistan’s mediation for months.

Oman’s involvement is not new. Albusaidi has held recurring talks with Tehran on the strait’s navigation rules.

Ejaz Haider, a Lahore-based defence analyst, said the Omani and Pakistani diplomatic tracks complement each other.

“Oman and Islamabad channels complement, because clause 5 of the Islamabad MoU stresses a bilateral understanding on the strait [between Oman and Iran],” he told Al Jazeera. The Strait of Hormuz passes through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.

“This [a deal between Iran and Oman to jointly manage the strait] is not in the interest of the US, which is why Trump has threatened to bomb Oman,” Haider said, referring to remarks Trump made on August 17, when he told Fox News he would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of reopening the strait, the second time he had threatened the US ally over Hormuz.

Where Islamabad’s advantage as a mediator lay was in its “direct access to Vahidi, Abdollahi and Rezaei, the actual architects of Iran’s decision-making”, Saeed, the former naval official, said.

An Iranian official close to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Albusaidi would be in Tehran “primarily to hear what Iran has decided and what it has discussed with its Pakistani mediator”.

Who holds the leverage?

Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of defence studies at King’s College London, said the differences that had emerged between the Iranian military and civilian leaderships demonstrate a gulf between their understanding of where the war stood.

Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf, Krieg said, were “essentially warning that Iran cannot live indefinitely in this condition”, while “parts of the IRGC believe the opposite and think time is working against Washington”.

But ultimately, he said, “Mohsen Rezaei, Ahmad Vahidi and the IRGC are central to whether any political understanding [to end the war] can be implemented”, referring to Iran’s top military leadership.

“[Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas] Araghchi can negotiate something, and Qatar can broker it, but none of that matters if the security apparatus does not accept the operational consequences.”

For now, Munir appears to be the candidate mediators believe has the best shot at getting Iranian generals from their war room to the board room.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion confirmed he’s only going to play in an exhibition match and has no plans to return.

Roger Federer is actually nervous about his tennis.

The man who won five straight US Open championships during the height of his dominance of the sport is set to play again in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019. And he’s not quite sure how the game that perhaps nobody ever made look more elegant will appear now.

“I haven’t played a singles set in, I don’t know, [Hubert] Hurkacz at Wimbledon maybe, so it’s been five years,” Federer said on Monday, referring to his 2021 quarterfinal loss in his last Grand Slam match.

“I don’t know how it’s going to go tomorrow. So there is a lot of uncertainty but a lot of happiness that I can return to Arthur Ashe, a place where I have had so many beautiful moments.”

It’s only one set of singles in an exhibition against Andy Roddick and one set of doubles with John McEnroe against Roddick and Andre Agassi. The winner of 20 Grand Slam singles titles should be fine for those.

But a return to tennis beyond that, competing in major tennis tournaments in his mid-40s like Venus and Serena Williams?

“No, no, no, no. No, not at all,” Federer said during a news conference.

“Thanks for asking. I wasn’t sure if the question was going to get asked, but I’m happy you did so I can clarify in case anybody thought.”

At 45, Federer still looks fit, and said he enjoys working out in the gym. But he said he goes through long stretches where he is rarely on the court.

His lengthy absence from the US Open has done little to dampen his popularity, based on the number of people around the grounds who were mentioning his name. The appearance of “Roger Federer” up on the big board for all to see again, before his afternoon practice on Ashe, where Federer collected the trophy every year from 2004-08, was a welcome sight for his fans.

The trip to New York is a stop for Federer on his way to Newport, Rhode Island, where he will be enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Federer never really had the chance to say goodbye to New York as a player, because there was no way to know his loss to Grigor Dimitrov in the 2019 quarterfinals would be his last match. He had reached the French Open semifinals and the Wimbledon final earlier that year, falling to Rafael Nadal in Paris and then Novak Djokovic in a fifth-set tiebreaker at the All England Club.

‘Knee is tired’

It was easy to imagine him returning to the US Open the next year and making another deep run. But after falling to Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open to begin 2020, he had knee surgery that February, then another procedure in May.

He returned to play in the French Open in 2021 but had to withdraw before his fourth-round match. After the loss to Hurkacz – where he appeared to struggle and lost 6-0 in the third set – Federer had another knee surgery that August and knew there would be no more comebacks.

“The knee can’t do it any more. It’s tired,” he recalled thinking. “The mind can’t be patient even more and wait for another couple years and see what happens.”

Federer knows Tuesday night won’t be real tennis, joking that he and Roddick hopefully would be respectful and not try to drop shot each other. But it will be different from when he did return to Ashe a couple of years back to watch.

“They gave me an ovation because they saw me on the big screen, but I just feel, like, tomorrow and I guess today, as well, and Monday next week, it really gives me a true opportunity to say thank you and goodbye, which I think is important for some,” Federer said.

“It’s a nice thing to do, for sure.”

If the action happens, it will be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history, AP reports.

The United States is preparing to cancel business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are seeking asylum in the country, according to the Associated Press news agency.

The AP, citing State Department documents and interviews with two US officials, reported on Monday that if the plan goes ahead, it would be the “largest single mass revocation of visas” in the country’s history.

It said the State Department is expected to announce the action within the coming weeks, working in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

It would target so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026, whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum.

“We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

Officials cited by the AP said the revocations would not automatically trigger deportations.

Instead, most people with pending asylum cases would be shifted into a different immigration category, effectively stripping their business or tourist designation while their cases proceed.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the US and then apply for asylum.

“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.”

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants – demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In the past 18 months, the State Department has also revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunk driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against US policies, particularly in the Middle East.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has announced new economic sanctions on Tehran, describing the measures as an “economic D-Day” as the US war on Iran approaches the six-month mark.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the sanctions on Monday, alongside a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Bessent said the sanctions target key sources of Iran’s revenue, including its oil and gas industry, and called on countries around the world to cut economic ties with Tehran.

What are the sanctions?

The Treasury Department said the sanctions will target Iran’s aviation, digital assets, gold, technology and shipping sectors, as well as impose sanctions on 60 specific individuals and vessels.

“The main point is that Iran seems to have much less room than it did in previous years to simply work around sanctions,” Peiman Salehi, a Tehran-based geopolitical analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Bessent also said on Monday that the new sanctions expose Tehran’s trade partners to secondary penalties. According to a Treasury Department release on Monday, the targets include ships based in or associated with countries including Singapore, China, and Hong Kong.

“Today’s sanctions are mostly incremental, but are part of trying to intimidate remaining trading partners into cutting ties [with Iran],” said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

“There’s a lot of signalling and bluster aimed at getting other countries to crack down on entities involved in grey-zone trade, but new measures are mostly incremental for now,” she said. Grey-zone trade refers to both illegal, underground trade and trade that is unsanctioned but difficult.

The Treasury Department said Iran has used cryptocurrency to circumvent its longtime sanctions and facilitate transactions involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and members of the Iranian regime. The department also said Iran has used gold to help prop up the value of its currency amid economic instability.

The new shipping sanctions target Iran’s state-linked shipping fleet, which the Treasury Department alleges is being used to transport oil as well as “sensitive weapons components”.

The technology sanctions are intended to restrict Iran’s acquisition of materials that could be used in its weapons programmes. The aviation sanctions target Iranian airlines that the Treasury Department alleges are being used to transport weapons and military personnel, as well as financial resources to Iran’s proxies.

Washington also indefinitely suspended several broad exceptions to its ongoing sanctions on Iran, including those covering academic exchanges, personal money transfers and certain sporting activities. Organisations currently engaged in those activities have until September 8 to wind down their operations.

Ziemba says these measures “will have more effect on Iranians, not just the regime”.

What sanctions were already in place?

Washington’s sanctions on Iran have been in place since 1979, after students took hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran, and increased over the next 45 years. Sanctions were briefly paused, however, after the administration of President Barack Obama and world powers signed a nuclear deal with Tehran in 2015. But the Trump administration withdrew from the deal during its first term, in 2018, bringing back old penalties while adding new ones.

Washington imposed new sanctions during Trump’s second term, many of them before the US and Israel first struck the country on February 28.

In February 2025, the Treasury Department sanctioned 30 individuals and vessels involved in the “brokering [of] the sale and transportation of Iranian petroleum-related products”, according to a department release. The targets were based in several countries, including India and China.

In December 2025, Washington sanctioned 29 vessels it accused of being part of a so-called shadow fleet used to transport Iranian petroleum. It also sanctioned Egyptian businessman Hatem Elsaid Farid Ibrahim Sakr over his businesses’ alleged ties to seven of those 29 vessels. The measures continued the 1979 sanctions campaign against Iran’s oil industry.

The Treasury Department stepped up the sanctions again in April 2026, targeting another two dozen individuals, companies and vessels operating within the network of Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of now-deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani.

Later that same month, the Treasury also targeted what it described as “regime-linked cryptocurrency” and said it had seized nearly half a billion dollars from so-called “shadow banking networks”.

How have sanctions affected US consumers?

Pressure on the Iranian oil market, both through existing sanctions as well as the current war, has tightened the rest of the globe’s oil supply and affected countries that buy Iranian oil.

China, for example, is the primary destination for Iranian oil, buying roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports. Beijing bought 1.4 million barrels per day in 2025.

At the same time, Asian markets, China included, also heavily rely on oil travelling through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, where roughly one-fifth of the globe’s oil transited before Iran choked off the route.

This has put pressure on the global oil supply, meaning the benchmark for crude oil has ticked up, translating to higher prices on fuel and food.

For US consumers, that has been most apparent at the petrol pump. The average price for a gallon of petrol (3.78 litres) is $4.09, up from $2.98 on February 28 when the US and Israel first struck Iran, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks daily petrol prices.

Experts warn that if Iran retaliation accelerates, it could hit Americans hard.

“If sanctions provoke Iranian retaliation against Gulf shipping, materially reduce oil exports, or cause insurers and shipping companies to avoid the region, then Americans could feel it very quickly through gasoline, diesel, airfares, freight costs and ultimately inflation,” John Deal, managing director of capital markets at Post Oak Group investment bank, told Al Jazeera.

The economy and Iran are emerging as key issues heading into the US midterm elections, with voters expressing dissatisfaction on both fronts. That could put pressure on Republicans in competitive races, including in traditionally red states such as Texas.

A late-July Reuters/Ipsos poll suggested that only about a third of Americans supported the war, while just 28 percent of respondents in a CNN poll approved of Trump’s handling of Iran.

On the economy, an AP/NORC poll suggested that 32 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, meanwhile, suggested that Democrats were narrowly ahead of Republicans on which party voters trust more to handle the economy—the first Democratic advantage in roughly a decade.

How are the sanctions affecting markets?

The latest sanctions announcement is weighing on Wall Street as well as the oil and gold markets.

On the heels of the announcement, the price of gold, largely considered a safe investment during times of economic uncertainty, jumped by 0.8 percent to $4,639.49 per ounce (28 grams) in midday trading, ticking up to its highest level since mid-May.

As for oil, prices pulled back on Monday after two weeks of gains. The price of the global benchmark Brent crude tumbled by more than 2 percent on Monday to $85.22 a barrel.

On Wall Street, the major indices are mixed amid the latest sanctions news as well as Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on Canada. The Nasdaq is down 0.5 percent, and the S&P 500 is down 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, is trending in positive territory, 0.2 percent higher than the market open on Monday.

The oil sector is taking a hit. Chevron is down 0.8 percent, ExxonMobil tumbled 0.9 percent, BP fell more than 2 percent, and Shell is down 0.2 percent.

United States House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has met privately with Jared Kushner, US President Trump’s son-in-law and a top outside adviser, in a signal that the White House is seeking ways to work with Democrats if they wrestle majority control from Republicans in the midterm elections.

Little is known about the details of the discussion, which was first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The newspaper described it as a high-profile meeting with the hope of sparking bipartisan “common ground.”

The meeting reportedly touched on issues ranging from housing and immigration to the cost-of-living crisis. Americans are struggling under inflationary prices that Democrats fault Republicans and Trump for failing to curb.

In a statement reported on Sunday, Jeffries did not mention the private conversation but said the Republican administration needed to drop the GOP’s “my-way-or-the-highway” approach that has thus far “failed the American people”.

“To stop the madness, we have repeatedly made clear that an extremist approach will not work and will be met with forceful opposition”, the New York congressman said. “The question is whether Republicans will join us.”

Kushner also suggested that Jeffries meet with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as a follow-up.

The reported meeting comes in the final stretch of the contentious November midterm elections in which Democrats may have a chance to win back the House majority, a highly anticipated development that would elevate Jeffries to the powerful Speaker of the House role. If they win back the seat, Democrats are expected to use their oversight power to aggressively probe the Trump administration, including allegations of self-enrichment by the president and his family.

Jeffries’ office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Congressional Republicans are unhappy about the matter. On Sunday, current House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the meeting and denigrated Kushner’s importance, telling Fox News, “I don’t know what that’s about. I know Jared has interest in lots of other things going on.”

Johnson added that Kushner “hedges bets” and is “not really directly involved in the admin, at least in the day-to-day in the White House”.

“I’m telling you what, you better not bet against the House Republicans”, the Louisiana Congressman added, saying that even if the war with Iran was not finished by November, Republicans will still turn up victorious.

The meeting also raised some eyebrows for those who worried that Jeffries was indulging one of Trump’s most corrupt cronies.

Tommy Vietor, previously an aide to former US President Barack Obama and now a co-host of the left-leaning podcast Pod Save America, noted, “Jared Kushner has no actual government job he just uses his family connections to get money from gulf autocrats and fund corrupt deals. The only way [Jeffries] should work with him is with demands for documents and subpoenas.”

Mehdi Hasan, the CEO of Zeteo, echoed Vietor, writing on social media, “The only meeting Hakeem Jeffries should be having with Jared Kushner is to tell him he’ll be subpoenaed by the House for a corruption investigation on day one of Democratic control of the House.” He added, “This is just pathetic stuff from the House Dem leader.”

William Kristol, a former neocon-turned-leading voice in the ‘Never Trump’ movement, posted, “Really? Or, as the kids say, AYFKM?” (The acronym stands for “Are you f****** kidding me?”)

During his time in Congress, Jeffries has remained a fierce critic of Trump’s bellicose foreign policy, repeatedly condemning the administration’s “reckless war of choice” against Iran and for what he called “a failure to adequately prepare for the consequences of launching a war on Iran”.

The meeting shows the depth of Republican Party angst over losing their congressional majority, particularly the House, and the need to make inroads with the opposing party as the White House seeks to stem any potential political fallout on the president.

“The American people want bold change and that’s what House Democrats will deliver”, wrote Jeffries in the statement on Sunday.

The White House did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Jared Kushner is a familiar messenger between Donald Trump and Democratic politicians

Jeffries and Kushner are not strangers.

The two New Yorkers united during the first Trump administration on landmark legislation to allow sentencing flexibility for certain drug offenses as a way to curtail lengthy terms in the federal prison system.

While not necessarily close, they have maintained a professional working relationship despite the repeated punches Trump has inflicted against Jeffries and the Democratic leader’s rhetoric. In Trump’s second term, Kushner has wielded disproportionate influence within the administration despite holding no official White House title. He serves as a top outside adviser and Special Envoy for Peace, shuttling to foreign diplomatic missions as the US war against Iran inches toward its sixth-month mark.

Just last week, Kushner traveled to the Middle East to convene with Qatari, Turkish and Egyptian mediators before heading to Tel Aviv where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the fate of the 15-point Gaza peace plan that Israel had rejected. The trip came after officials from Trump’s newly-created Board of Peace confirmed that Kushner would lead a delegation to break the diplomatic deadlock, via Egypt and Israel.

Trump has only met with Jeffries once since returning to the Oval Office. After the meeting, the president posted AI-generated deepfake content of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer alongside Jeffries wearing a sombrero with a handlebar mustache. The image was widely viewed as a racist trope and a parody of the Democratic establishment just before what would become the longest federal government shutdown in US history.

Trump has thus far been able to discount Congress as he either relies on the unchecked force of executive power to implement his priorities or the lobbying of Republicans in the House and Senate, when needed, to fall in line behind his unilateral decisions.

That may soon change if Democrats control either the House or the Senate, or both, with lawmakers increasingly keen on flexing their own power in Congress as a coequal branch of government more willing to hold the White House in check.

Falling Republican support, rising gas prices, and fears of a long conflict drive a decline in backing for the Iran war.

Support in the United States for the war on Iran has fallen as President Donald Trump’s approval remains at a record low, a Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests.

Public backing for the war has dropped to its lowest level since the early stages of the conflict, with declining Republican support contributing to the shift, according to the poll released on Monday.

Just 31 percent of Americans surveyed said they support US military action against Iran, down from 37 percent in March and 34 percent earlier this month. Support among Republican respondents fell to 69 percent, compared with 77 percent in March.

The war is also continuing to weigh on Trump’s standing with the public, the poll suggests. For the second consecutive Reuters/Ipsos survey, 33 percent of respondents said they approved of Trump’s performance as president, matching the lowest approval rating recorded in the polling series across his first and second terms.

Trump has defended the military campaign as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The conflict began on February 28 with US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

But the economic effects of the war remain a concern for Americans. Iran has maintained a de facto blockade of oil exports from the region, contributing to a rise in US petrol prices to near record highs.

The Trump administration has also announced recent pledges to increase economic pressure on Iran. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said on Monday that the US would target all of Iran’s sources of revenue, including oil, with the aim of preventing other countries and companies from doing business with Tehran. The campaign is dubbed “Operation Economic Outcast”.

A growing majority of Americans expect the war to continue for some time, the poll suggests. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they believe the conflict will last for an extended period, up from 80 percent earlier this month.

The prospect of a lengthy war presents a challenge for Trump, who campaigned for the presidency in 2024 on promises to bring down inflation and to adopt an “America First” strategy of avoiding foreign military engagements.

Six months into the conflict, petrol prices are more than $1 per gallon (3.8 litres) higher than they were before the war, adding to economic pressure ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The higher fuel costs could also create difficulties for Republicans defending narrow congressional majorities.

The poll suggests that independent voters favour Democrats over Republicans when asked which party they would support in a congressional election held today. Among independents, 33 percent said they would vote for a Democrat, compared with 19 percent who said they would choose a Republican.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey questioned 1,215 adults across the United States over four days and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

US Southern Command says that Sunday’s strike targeted a vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.

The United States military said it struck a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people.

In a Monday post on X, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said Sunday’s strike targeted a vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.

“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” SOUTHCOM added.

“This operation is a clear and decisive reminder that SOUTHCOM is taking the fight directly to the cartels.”

Grainy, black-and-white video accompanying the post appeared to show a boat moving through the water immediately before a large explosion.

The post stated that under the direction of SOUTHCOM Commander General Francis L. Donovan, the Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal kinetic strike on the low-profile vessel.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” Donovan was quoted as saying.

“Let me be clear, we will not permit narco-terrorists to operate with impunity in the Western Hemisphere, nor will we allow their deadly poison to reach American communities. This operation is a powerful demonstration of our lethal precision, overwhelming capability, and absolute resolve to protect the U.S. homeland.”

The US military launched Operation Southern Spear in early September, with President Donald Trump arguing that Washington is effectively at war with Latin American drug cartels.

Since then, more than 200 people have been killed in strikes across the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, according to a tally by the AFP news agency.

However, the Trump administration has not provided definitive evidence that the targeted vessels were involved in drug trafficking.

Legal experts and rights groups warn that the attacks could amount to extrajudicial killings.

The Pentagon’s inspector general said in May that it would review whether the military followed standard targeting procedures, though the evaluation will not examine the legal authority behind the strikes.

Islamabad, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is traveling to Tehran on Monday for talks with senior Iranian officials, Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday.

It will be Munir’s third visit to Iran this year as Islamabad continues its push to mediate an end to the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.

Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Al Jazeera that the trip would take place but declined to elaborate on its agenda.

The Pakistani military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), as well as the Foreign Ministry and Information Ministry, did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment on the visit, which was unusually announced by Tehran rather than Islamabad.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the trip would build on Pakistan’s efforts to “help strengthen peace and security in the region”.

Munir will hold talks with senior Iranian officials during his stay, Baghaei told reporters in Tehran.

The visit follows two phone calls between Munir and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi within four days, on Wednesday and Saturday.

The two officials discussed “regional developments” and ways to strengthen “peace, stability and security” in West Asia, according to Iranian state media.

A third trip this year

Munir’s first visit to Tehran this year came in April, days after the Islamabad Talks, the first direct US-Iran negotiations in more than four decades, ended without a breakthrough.

He returned in May, arriving hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been “slight progress” in talks between Washington and Tehran.

His latest visit comes as the diplomatic track underpinning the Islamabad MoU has all but stalled, while Washington prepares a new round of sanctions.

The discussions are also expected to touch on this month’s announcement of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, which Munir attended in Mecca.

Yemen’s Houthi fighters, whose attacks on shipping lanes have repeatedly threatened to widen the conflict, are also likely to feature in his conversations with Iranian officials. The Houthis are widely believed to receive support from Tehran.

The issue carries particular weight for Islamabad.

Three Pakistani sailors were killed and several others wounded when Houthi forces struck a Tanzania-flagged commercial vessel in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on August 11.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called the attack a violation of international law and “strongly condemned” it at the time.

Munir is expected to meet Iran’s newly appointed senior military leadership during the visit, according to Reza Afzal Samir, an Iranian journalist tracking the talks.

“He is well positioned to meet Iran’s newer senior military leadership, the new IRGC chief, the new Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, and the new Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,” Samir told Al Jazeera, referring to Munir’s expected meetings with Major-General Ahmad Vahidi, Major-General Ali Abdollahi and Mohsen Rezaei respectively.

The officials were all appointed earlier this month.

A lapsed deal

The visit comes at a fraught moment for Pakistan’s mediation effort, which it has led after the war began six months ago.

The 60-day window set out in the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by Pakistan, Iran and the US on June 17, lapsed in mid-August without either side agreeing to extend it.

Iran has kept the Strait of Hormuz shut, insisting that Washington first lift its naval blockade, end oil sanctions, unfreeze Iranian assets abroad and halt military threats. Tehran says the US has not met those conditions.

Munir’s trip also coincides with a fresh round of US economic pressure.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to detail on Monday what American officials have called the “toughest sanctions in history” against Iran, a package he has said is intended, alongside the continuing naval blockade, to “collapse” the government in Tehran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called the plan “economic warfare”.

The trip also follows a month of regional realignment. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7, a mutual defence pact under which an attack on one signatory would be treated as an attack on all three.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi travelled to Tehran earlier this month to revive the stalled mediation push but returned without any concrete results.

Tensions elsewhere in the region have sharpened too.

The United Arab Emirates suspended trade and financial transactions with Iran last week after saying it had come under fire from two ballistic missiles launched from Iranian territory, a claim Baghaei denied.

But Munir’s visit, analysts say, signals that key regional mediators have not given up on efforts to revive talks, either direct or indirect, between Iran and the US, even as they try to balance their own relations with Tehran and Washington.

Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi, who, like Munir, has held recent telephone conversations with Araghchi, is scheduled to visit Tehran on Tuesday, Iran’s state-owned IRNA news agency has reported.

What leverage does Islamabad have?

Analysts remain divided on what Munir’s visit can realistically achieve, given Pakistan’s limited ability to enforce any understanding it helps broker.

“Both sides see Pakistan as a country that has helped facilitate dialogue without any personal stake in the outcome, nothing to gain for itself,” said Qamar Cheema, a political analyst and head of the Islamabad-based Sanober Institute. “That gives it a certain clarity, and the ability to offer an off-ramp to everyone involved.”

Javad Heiran-Nia, director of the Persian Gulf Studies Group in Tehran, said Pakistan’s persistence was driven partly by self-interest.

“Pakistan is concerned about escalating tensions and the outbreak of another all-out war between Iran and the United States, which would further destabilise the region,” he told Al Jazeera, pointing to Islamabad’s reliance on energy imports from the Gulf and the risk of disruption to remittances from Pakistani workers there if instability spreads.

Zahid Mehmood, a retired two-star general and Pakistani defence strategist, went further, describing Munir as still carrying Washington’s own offer to Tehran.

“Pakistan is still carrying, in effect, Washington’s off-ramp to Tehran,” he told Al Jazeera. “The country remains the most trusted conduit available.”

Not every analyst sees Pakistan’s role as this central.

Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of defence studies at King’s College London, said Qatar, not Pakistan, remained the primary channel.

“Qatar is leading the political mediation and remains the essential communication bridge between Washington and Tehran,” he told Al Jazeera.

Munir’s contribution, he said, was narrower, a “military-to-military channel into an Iranian system in which the IRGC and wider security establishment have become increasingly important to decisions about war and peace”.

What Munir can deliver, and what he can’t

Iranian journalist Samir said Pakistan had a significant role in Iran’s calculus because of what it could do.

“Why should Iran listen to Pakistan? Because Pakistan still retains the leverage to actually do something and create a real opening for peace, rather than remaining silent and doing nothing,” he said.

Samir also predicted the Munir visit could be followed quickly by movement on Hormuz negotiations. “I think the timeline for a final agreement between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is also drawing near,” he said. “If [Munir] succeeds in bringing Iran back to the table, I anticipate a new announcement from Oman and Iran on the strait shortly after.”

Krieg was more cautious about what Munir’s visit could deliver. The most meaningful outcome, he said, would be “confirmation that Iran’s security establishment would abide by a specific Hormuz deconfliction arrangement and restrain escalation through Yemen or Iraq if Qatar can secure reciprocal American movement”.

Without that, according to Krieg, “the communication bridge remains open, but the two sides continue moving towards another coercive cycle”.

Mehmood, the retired Pakistani general, was less equivocal.

“Pakistan is really the only exit card available to either side for their off-ramp,” he told Al Jazeera.

After nearly six months of war on Iran, the US appears to be taking a different approach.

President Donald Trump says Washington will carry out a “crushing economic operation”.

Attempts to reach an agreement to end the war have stalled.

Now, the US is calling on other countries to join what it calls the greatest coordinated economic isolation in history.

For its part, Iran says that any countries joining the US campaign will be treated as enemies.

What does this mean for the conflict?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Jamal Abdi – president of the National Iranian American Council

Hassan Ahmadian – professor at the University of Tehran and deputy director at the Center for Middle East Scientific and Strategic Studies

Mark Pfeifle – former White House deputy national security adviser and president of Off the Record Strategies

United States President Donald Trump’s unpredictability isn’t strengthening the US position in the Iran war, as “the Iranians have no reason to believe anything Trump tells them”, argues Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University.

Walt tells host Steve Clemons that the war is now in a “hurting stalemate” where “neither side really wants to escalate; they’re just waiting for the other side to crack”.

On the Palestinian-Israeli front, Walt doesn’t see an opening for a genuine political solution, as neither US party is willing to exert pressure on Israel, where “there’s still a very strong commitment to ‘Greater Israel’”.

Iran has threatened to retaliate against any country that joins the United States’ “economic war” against it, as diplomatic efforts to end the months-long war have stalled and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has drastically decreased.

The warning from Iran’s top security official on Saturday came as the US plans to announce new sanctions on Monday that could further strain the struggling Iranian economy.

So, how can Tehran retaliate?

Here’s what we know:

What has Iran said?

On Saturday, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the IRIB state broadcaster that Iran was appealing to all countries around the world, including its neighbours, not to join the US’s “economic war”.

“Any country that takes part in imposing economic restrictions on us will be regarded as an enemy,” he said, warning of “seismic” retaliation.

Rezaei also warned Iran’s neighbours that if they participated in Trump’s economic warfare, “not even a drop of oil” would leave the Gulf region, including by alternative export routes away from the Hormuz chokepoint through which a fifth of global oil and gas exports pass in peacetime.

Iran has attacked US military installations and civilian locations since the war began on February 28 , on the pretext that Tehran was on the verge of having nuclear bombs. That claim was debunked by the US intelligence agency, as well as the UN’s IAEA nuclear watchdog.

The US operates military facilities in more than a dozen locations across the Middle East and North Africa, including in Gulf nations, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Thousands of US soldiers are also stationed across the region, including in Jordan.

Rezaei’s remarks came days after US President Donald Trump announced that his government would undertake the “most crushing economic operation” yet against Iran. He also pledged “tremendous economic consequences” for any country that gives Iran “any type of lifeline”.

The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, echoed his threats the following day, saying, “You’re either with us or against us”. He also urged cooperation from China, which buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s oil shipments.

On Sunday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said: Iran is “in a full-scale economic, military and security war” with the US. He said Washington falsely predicted before the war that it would fall amid US aggression and become like Venezuela.

“The enemy had assessed that if Iran falls, it will become Venezuela,” he said in a televised speech.

“Not only did it not happen, but it became a power that amazed the world with its resistance, solidarity and cohesion.”

How can Iran retaliate?

Rezaei described Iran’s strategy as a three-stage sequence, starting with talks with countries cooperating with the US to de-escalate tensions.

“Of course, we will first negotiate with them. We will hold talks and tell them to step aside and distance themselves from the United States.”

“But if they do not act, we will strike. We will target that country’s interests,” he added.

Rezaei’s warning that alternative export routes outside Hormuz could be targeted, probably points to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait gateway to the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has used it to export its oil following the blockade of Hormuz. Tehran imposed a blockade on Hormuz in response to the US war and has since used it as leverage in negotiations with Washington to end the war. The US has put Iranian ports under a naval blockade, impacting Tehran’s international trade.

Hamidreza Azizi, a researcher on Iran at the Clingendael Institute, said in a post on X on Saturday: “Tehran appears to be trying to establish deterrence at an earlier stage, by signalling that even preparations for an attack could trigger an Iranian response.”

Azizi said two elements in the new “offensive doctrine” are emerging: preemption, which is aimed at preventing a perceived threat from materialising; and disproportionate retaliation, which is aimed at raising the cost of any attack that does occur.

Iran’s warning to Gulf states joining Trump’s economic war is “essentially an ultimatum” to the Gulf states, he said, adding that Iran’s military-security establishment “is increasingly preparing for another round of escalation”.

Will Iran’s neighbours join the US in its economic warfare?

Gulf countries, which are Iran’s neighbours and also US allies, have increasingly been finding themselves caught in the middle of the war. So it is unclear if they will join Washington in economically threatening Iran further.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf nations have impacted their economies, which use Hormuz for most of their exports, including oil and gas.

While Gulf nations have condemned Iranian attacks on their territories, analysts say Gulf states closely aligned with Washington recognise that a functioning political relationship with Iran is necessary due to its close proximity.

The UAE restored diplomatic relations with Iran in 2022 but imposed a trade embargo last week after accusing Tehran of a missile attack. Iran denies responsibility.

Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to normalise ties in 2023 under a deal brokered by China, both likely a calculation that engagement with Iran was safer than permanent confrontation.

While the Iranian attacks on Gulf states have tested this idea, they have not necessarily shattered it.

“Ultimately, Gulf countries can’t change geography. They have to live and work alongside Iran,” Simon Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University told Al Jazeera in an interview last month. “They don’t want the instability that would come from the fall of the Islamic Republic. I think some Gulf states have pushed for harder strikes – not to precipitate its collapse, but to weaken the more hardline elements of the IRGC.”

Also last month, Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Al Jazeera that confidence in diplomacy to end the crisis remains low but, at the same time, no nation in the region “can afford another long war”.

As a result, that “will keep them away from a completely uncontrolled level of escalation”, and depleted global oil inventories will make a prolonged confrontation between the US and Iran unattractive.

“All inventories have not been able to be replenished” during the ceasefire, Parsi added. “We are at a much lower level globally.”

What we know about international sanctions against Iran over previous decades?

Since 1979, Iran has faced sanctions from the US and other nations in the West. The United Nations has also imposed sanctions on Tehran.

The US first imposed sanctions after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi. Washington said that was in response to Iranian students taking Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran.

Washington also halted oil imports from Iran and froze $12bn in Iranian assets following the revolution. Iranian products were banned from import into the US, apart from small gifts, informational material, foodstuffs and some carpets.

In 1995, President Bill Clinton issued executive orders preventing US companies from investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran. He banned US trade with Iran and investment. A year later, the US Congress passed a law requiring the US government to impose sanctions on foreign firms investing more than $20m a year in Iran’s energy sector.

Then in December 2006, the United Nations Security Council, whose members include China, Russia, the UK and France, imposed sanctions on Iran’s trade in nuclear-energy-related materials and technology and froze the assets of individuals and companies involved in related activities.

The sanctions were mainly an effort to curtail Iran’s growing nuclear capacity, but while programmes to enrich uranium were stopped in 2002, they restarted in late 2005. In subsequent years, the UN toughened the sanctions and imposed more. The European Union also followed suit.

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – with the US, EU, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. The deal put a cap on Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the complete lifting of sanctions.

However, in 2018, during his first term, Trump announced the US withdrawal from the nuclear treaty and reimposed all sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the treaty as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.

In 2019, the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisation’. Additionally, he imposed sanctions targeting petrochemicals, metals (steel, aluminium, copper) and senior Iranian officials.

During Trump’s first term, Qassem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, was assassinated in a drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. The US also imposed additional sanctions on Iran.

The Biden administration, in power from 2021 to 2025, kept in place most US sanctions.

Last September, UN sanctions were reimposed due to Iran’s nuclear programme when the UNSC voted against permanently lifting economic sanctions.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion will not be playing singles, but could team up with her older sister Venus for doubles.

Serena Williams will team up with Carlos Alcaraz to create a powerhouse mixed doubles pair on her return to the US Open.

The US Tennis Association announced on Saturday that Williams and Alcaraz had been given a wild card into the tournament. The mixed doubles main draw begins on Tuesday, with the winning team sharing $1 million.

It will be Williams’s first time playing at the US Open since 2022. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion returned to tennis this summer.

“Let’s gooooo!” Alcaraz posted on X, with a fire emoji and tagging Williams.

Williams is not planning to play singles in New York. The USTA had been holding one women’s wild card, presumably in case Williams wanted it. However, the tournament announced on Saturday that it had been given to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.

Williams played singles at Wimbledon but sustained a knee injury in her first-round loss. She played doubles with older sister Venus at the Cincinnati Open, and they could still opt to play together at the US Open.

Alcaraz announced this week he would return to defend his US Open singles title after being sidelined since April with a right wrist injury.

Serena Williams won a mixed doubles title at the US Open even before winning any of her six singles titles there. She teamed for the 1998 championship with Max Mirnyi, who now works with top-ranked woman Aryna Sabalenka.

The mixed doubles tournament is far different now, as the USTA revamped it last year to make it a two-day, 16-team event it hoped would draw top singles players.

Few are bigger than Williams and Alcaraz, the two-time US Open men’s champion who is ranked number two.

The USTA also announced a number of updates to the field after some players withdrew from the competition.

Americans Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz will team up, after their previous partners, Jack Draper and Elena Rybakina, pulled out with injuries. The teams of Emma Navarro and Tommy Paul, along with Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, were given the remaining two wild cards into the main draw.

Diana Shnaider remains in the field and will be given a chance to find a new partner after Daniil Medvedev withdrew.

US Open mixed doubles teams: Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Pegula and Fritz, Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli, Amanda Anisimova and Learner Tien, two-time defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev, Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils, Williams and Alcaraz, Muchova and Mensik, and Navarro and Paul.

The remaining two spots will be determined through an eight-team qualifying tournament on Monday.

The USTA gave wild cards to the teams of Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev, and Peyton Stearns and Christian Harrison, to be part of that field.

It is otherwise largely made up of the traditional doubles specialists who lost out on the chance to play in the US Open last year, with direct entry based on the players’ combined singles ranking.

The women’s all-American final will be followedby a men’s title clash between Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France.

Jessica Pegula rallied in the third set to topple defending champion Iga Swiatek and book a title showdown with Coco Gauff at the Cincinnati Masters tennis tournament.

World number three Pegula won a “crazy” match against Swiatek 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday in the US city.

Gauff powered past giant-killer Sara Bejlek 6-4, 6-1, ending the unseeded Czech’s dream run that included a fourth-round victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

Their all-American Sunday night final will be followed by a men’s title clash between American Frances Tiafoe and Arthur Fils of France.

Fils charged into his first Masters 1000 final with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli in a match delayed for 45 minutes by rain and lightning.

Swiatek and Pegula then waited out another rain delay before their match, which was also briefly interrupted two games in.

“Crazy match today,” Pegula said after needing nearly three hours to subdue Swiatek, who was coming off her first title of 2026 in Toronto last week.

“A lot of back and forth, a lot of breaks,” she said. “Really windy, kind of odd conditions. I felt like we were playing well and then not playing well.

“It was really tough to kind of get a gauge on the match.”

The pair rode a rollercoaster of breaks and re-breaks before Pegula took a 5-4 lead in the final set, Swiatek saving three break points before double-faulting on a fourth.

Pegula quickly closed it out, firing a service winner on match point.

“I was just really happy with the way I was able to kind of handle just a lot that was going on today,” the 31-year-old American said. “I did a good job no matter what was happening.”

The first five games of what evolved into an epic went against the server as Pegula and Swiatek struggled to adjust to the conditions.

Swiatek blinked first as Pegula held at love for a 4-2 lead, but Swiatek won the next three games before Pegula broke again, finally taking the set when Swiatek smacked a volley into the net on set point.

They had exchanged two breaks in the second when Swiatek broke in the final game to square the match.

Tiafoe feeling ‘damn good’ on return to final

Tiafoe, runner-up to Jannik Sinner in Cincinnati in 2024, returned to the final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over fellow American Brandon Nakashima.

Tiafoe saved three set points in the opening set, breaking Nakashima five times in all to earn the win in less than two hours.

“It feels d*** good,” Tiafoe said.

The American predicted a “h*** of a show” against Fils, whose 68-minute win over seventh-seeded Cobolli made him the youngest French Masters finalist since a 20-year-old Richard Gasquet in Toronto two decades ago.

Fils admitted he had been unsettled by the weather delay.

“You come on court more nervous because it’s a semi-final. The rain arrives, you wait and when you come back conditions are completely different,” he said.

“It was tough, but I’m happy with how I dealt with it.”

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced retaliatory tariffs on the United States after Washington imposed a 50 percent levy on $20bn worth of Canadian goods.

Carney, speaking in Ottawa on Saturday, said the new Canadian tariffs would target US steel, dairy and electronics industries among others and take effect on September 8.

“Canada will match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar in order to protect Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses,” Carney told reporters.

The announcement came after days of intense negotiations broke down late on Friday, worsening a delicate relationship between the longtime trade partners and allies.

US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs hit sectors including wine, furniture, dairy products, cement, clothing, fishing rods and hockey equipment, and cover some $20bn worth of goods, or 5.5 percent of Canadian exports to the US.

Carney said Trump set conditions that were ultimately unacceptable even though earlier talks had been positive.

“In recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair and undermined the net benefits for Canada, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” Carney said, adding these demands included curtailing Canada’s ability to forge new trade deals.

“We cannot accept what they’ve offered, and we will not give what they’ve asked.”

He added that US negotiators also made unacceptable “threats” to the French language and “Quebec culture”, referring to the French-speaking province in eastern Canada.

No new talks planned

Carney is one of the few global leaders to retaliate against US tariffs and has pledged to forge new trade and military alliances, despite Canada’s dependence on the ‌US for nearly 70 percent of its exports.

Canada will impose tariffs on US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics, along with some products the US previously targeted in Canada, Carney said from Ottawa’s Parliament building. The government will release details on its response in the coming days, he said.

Carney said Canada would announce support measures next week for industries hit ⁠by the new US duties, adding these measures could last years.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Fox News on Saturday that no new ⁠talks are planned with Canada.

“We’re moving forward with measures that respond to Canadian retaliation,” Greer said. “They’ve always had the best deal, and they still would have an even better deal, but they didn’t want that.”

The new US tariffs are expected to have a major impact on Canada’s economy.

“Costs are going to go up, prices are going to go up, unemployment is going to go up as well,” said Al Jazeera’s David Mercer, reporting from the Canadian city of Calgary. “And it’s been warned that business owners – small [and] medium-sized businesses – some of those will have to declare bankruptcy,” he said.

At the same time, Mercer said, Carney is selling the trade war as an opportunity for Canada to strengthen its trade relations with other countries.

“He’s been around the world, he’s been talking to countries in Asia, in Europe, shoring up new trade relationships, wanting to diversify Canada’s economy and Canada’s trade relationships with other countries around the world just to get away from that dependency that Canada has traditionally had on the United States,” he said.

Public opinion surveys in Canada show most Canadians back a “tougher approach” to the US in the trade talks. A poll by Leger last week said 56 percent of Canadians favoured a hard line and making no more concessions.

‘Bad deal’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, one of the most vocal ⁠opponents of US tariffs, supported Carney’s decision to retaliate.

“I’m glad he didn’t sign that deal because it was a bad deal. It was a bad deal for Ontario. It was a bad deal for the auto sector, the steel sector, and manufacturing sector,” Ford told reporters on Saturday.

In Port Colborne, Ontario, resident Stuart Edwards said the trade war was going to “hurt everybody” and “it’s just sad”.

“We have a bully in Washington, and he’s just hitting us all with the big stick all the time,” he said. “And we’re not going to put up with it; Canada isn’t. We’ll fight back.”

But Pamela Coulis, from Fort Erie in Canada, was worried about rising prices.

“I think probably the gas will go up even more, and all products, from food to, I don’t know, wood, everything else,” she said.

Diamond Isinger, who served as a special adviser to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said both countries will suffer from the trade war.

“It’s going to cause pain and challenge for Canadians and Americans alike, in terms of the actions that, unfortunately, the US has taken as well as Canada’s retaliation. But ultimately this was the way forward; this was the only realistic next step,” she said.

“Because the US administration responds best, of all the responses that they could have, to all the actions that a government like Canada could take, to strength,” Isinger added.

“So, we could not simply accept 50 percent tariffs going forward. We had to move forward with our own retaliatory package.”

In the US, the escalating trade war was met with anger by Democratic lawmakers and governors from border states including Minnesota, New York and Washington, who blamed Trump for triggering chaos that would raise costs for US businesses and families.

“Needlessly picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home. That’s Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul posted on X.

The Business Roundtable, a group of 200 chief executives of leading US corporations, also warned the new tariffs “risk raising costs for American businesses and families”, and urged both governments to resume negotiations.

Iran security chief Rezaei says any state joining US would be considered an enemy and Tehran would target their interests in retaliation.

The warning comes as US President Donald Trump threatens to isolate Iran economically, to weaken its government.

Iran has threatened to treat nearby countries as enemies and target their interests if they join a United States campaign to cripple its economy.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued the warning in a Saturday interview with state broadcaster IRIB.

“We’re telling all nearby countries not to join the US economic war. Otherwise, we will consider them as enemies,” Rezaei told IRIB.

His remarks come on the heels of escalating economic threats from the administration of US President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Trump announced his government would undertake the “most crushing economic operation” yet against Iran, as part of ongoing hostilities between the two countries.

The US and Israel have been locked in a war with Iran since February 28, when the two allies launched an initial volley of attacks against Tehran.

In addition to threatening Iran’s economy this week, Trump pledged “tremendous economic consequences” for any country that gives Iran “any type of lifeline”.

His Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, echoed his threats the following day, saying, “You’re either with us or against us.”

In Saturday’s interview, Rezaei described Iran’s regional strategy as a three-stage sequence, which would start with efforts to de-escalate tensions with neighbouring countries.

“First we negotiate. Then, we try to separate them from America with pleasant language, because we are not really looking to expand the war,” he said.

Any countries that continue to side with the US would then be given time to reconsider, he said. “But in the third stage, we will definitely act.”

While the US has not stopped its military operations against Iran, Rezaei suggested that the Trump administration was betting that economic pressure would fracture Iranian society, forcing the war to come to an end.

“They hope that, if possible, they can break our unity with economic pressure and a group of protesters will take to the streets, and in a way, they will come to the aid of American F-35s,” he said, referring to a kind of military aircraft.

Negotiations to end the conflict have stalled in recent months, following the failure of a June 17 memorandum of understanding (MoU) that called for an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations”.

Control over the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping lane off the coast of Iran, has become an enduring sticking point between the US and Iran.

Iran quickly moved to shut down traffic through the strait early in the war, sending the price of goods like oil and fertiliser skyrocketing.

Countries in the Middle East that were previously reliant on the strait for exports have started to pursue substitute trade routes.

But Rezaei warned that Iran would target those alternative oil-shipping routes out of the Gulf if regional states took part in the US’s plans of economic warfare.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday also decried the incoming US measures as an assertion of “extraterritorial sovereignty” over United Nations member states.

Tehran has also reportedly considered widening its target list beyond the Middle East, with media outlets reporting it could strike US allies in Europe who have supported Trump’s operations.

For the second week in a row, Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, faces threats from an intensifying storm.

Tropical Storm Moke is grinding towards Hawaii, bringing gusts of wind and heavy rain only a week after the islands faced similar conditions from Hurricane Lala.

On Saturday, Hawaii residents prepared for the latest storm, which is expected to pass south of Hawaii Island, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, overnight and into the following morning.

As of 11am Hawaii Standard Time (21:00 GMT), Moke was located about 684 kilometres, or 425 miles, south of Hilo, a city on the eastern coast of Hawaii Island. It was moving west-northwest at 19km/h (12mph).

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the United States reported that the storm’s maximum sustained winds were about 85km/h (50mph).

Moke, like Lala, is forecast to spare the Big Island a potentially disastrous direct hit. But the island is still recovering from Lala, a Category 1 storm that spurred heavy flooding and power outages.

At least one person died in last weekend’s storm.

Lala came close enough to Hawaii Island to dump more than 1,000mm (39 inches) of rain in some locations, causing rivers to burst their banks.

High winds also bent tall palm trees and downed electrical lines, forcing nearly 130,000 utility customers to lose power.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green and other state officials have urged people to prepare for Moke by restocking food, medicine and other daily essentials ahead of the storm’s passage.

“It could certainly have a big impact because we’ve already been hit hard,” Green said in a video statement. “We’re pre-positioning all kinds of additional equipment and people. I’ve also authorised 100 rooms, hotel rooms, for people to go to, in case they don’t have enough services or protection, safety.”

Green added that, while power had been restored to most of Hawaii Island after Lala, some remote areas were still experiencing outages. Power is expected to be fully restored by September 8.

After passing Hawaii Island during the night, Moke is projected to continue on a westward path near the islands through early Tuesday, according to Casey Oswant, a meteorologist with the Honolulu office of the US National Weather Service.

“There will still be impacts, especially to the windward and southeast sides of the Big Island, but it will probably be a little bit more limited than what we saw with Lala,” Oswant said.

The National Hurricane Center projects that Moke will bring roughly 130mm to 250mm (5 to 10 inches) of rainfall over the next two days on the southeast and windward sides of the Big Island. Some isolated areas could see as much as 380mm (15 inches).

Eastern Maui, meanwhile, is likely to receive 76mm to 150mm (3 to 6 inches), with smaller amounts of precipitation expected across the rest of the island chain.

Governor Green warned that the heavy rain is unlikely to end with Moke.

“Everyone be very careful,” he said. “This storm will be followed by another storm front about a week later, and we continue to see the impacts of these major weather fronts that have hit Hawaii.”

Frances Tiafoe and Brandon Nakashima set up one all-American men’s semifinal, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula also win.

Brandon Nakashima continued his red-hot pace, knocking out sixth-seeded Taylor Fritz 7-6 (11/9), 4-6, 6-3 to reach the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters semifinals.

Unseeded Czech Sara Bejlek also advanced late Friday, backing up her stunning victory over world number one Aryna Sabalenka with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) quarterfinal win over Madison Keys.

Bejlek, 20, booked a semifinal showdown with fourth-seeded American Coco Gauff, who powered to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over 10th-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.

Nakashima lined up an all-American men’s semi against Frances Tiafoe, who out-lasted Italian Lorenzo Musetti 7-6 (7/2) 7-5.

Nakashima began his post-Wimbledon hard court run with a Washington semifinal – which he lost to Fritz – a run to the final in the Montreal Masters and now his best showing at Cincinnati, all with the US Open start barely more than a week away.

Nakashima withstood 22 aces from Fritz – who also bashed 31 unforced errors.

Nakashima trailed by a break in the third set but broke back to knot it at 3-3 and broke again for a 5-3 lead, out-hitting the powerful Fritz and converting his first match point with a forehand winner.

“I’ve gotten a lot of confidence over the summer,” Nakashima said. “In the final set I trusted my game, I’m proud with how I ended the match.”

Tiafoe needed four match points to get past Musetti in a match played at a slow but intense pace.

“He’s a hell of a player; he makes you beat him – and that’s what I did,” said Tiafoe, who was broken the first time he served for the match but won the next two games. “Each match is its own story. I just go out and compete as hard as I can.”

Bejlek got off to a slow start against big-hitting Keys, a former Australian Open champion and the 2019 winner in Cincinnati.

Bejlek trailed 0-3 on the way to dropping the first set but rode a wave of momentum shifts into the final four.

The Czech broke first in the third set only for Keys to battle back and force the tiebreaker, in which Bejlek rallied from 4-2 down on the way to a victory capped by a stinging winner down the line on match point.

“I just kept believing in the match no matter what,” said Bejlek, who won her first WTA title in Abu Dhabi in February as a qualifier.

“I believed much more than ever; it was always in my head.”

After a solid first set, the 24th-ranked Keys broke in the third game of the second, but Bejlek, ranked 35th, broke back in the sixth and held for a 4-3 lead.

Keys answered with a love game, but Bejlek turned the tables two games later to force the third.

Two-time Grand Slam winner Gauff was dialled in from the start against Kostyuk, breaking the 10th seed six times on the way to victory in 70 minutes.

Kostyuk, who had been 5-0 in quarterfinals this year, managed one break in each set, but they were minor hiccups for Gauff, who lost just five points behind her first serve.

“Every match is getting better for me,” Gauff said. “I’m being more decisive, my serve is improving and it is getting more and more rare for me to be broken.”

She was expecting a challenge from the rising Bejlek.

“Sara is a great player,” Gauff said. “I watched her win the title in Abu Dhabi. She’s so athletic and fast, but she makes you earn every point.”