Category: Asia

Trump cannot let Iran make him ‘look like a loser,’ says former Fox News personalityTehran has said it will grant a number of Iraqi tankers permission to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, following Donald Trump’s claims the waterway is “US territory”.
The agreement comes after repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
It comes as US president Donald Trump said he views the Strait of Hormuz as “American territory” and claimed Tehran was not ready to make the “right deal”.
The president has promised to wage “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” on Iran in what he called the “toughest sanctions in history”. In response, Tehran accused Trump of threatening “economic terrorism”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Saturday said that the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran was an “assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations”.
Iran..

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to retaliate after a double-tap drone strike on his home town killed 16 people.
Rescuers are still searching for survivors in the wreckage of a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, that was hit twice by Russia on Friday.
More than 130 people were wounded in a daytime attack carried out in two waves, with the second strike targeting emergency workers at the scene of the first.
Zelensky called the attacks an “act of barbarism”, claiming the “absolutely cynical and despicable” second strike was a deliberate attempt to target emergency services.
open image in galleryFirefighters work on a fire at a shopping mall following a Russian drone attack in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine (AP)“Attacks like these are nothing less than ⁠terrorist acts,” Zelensky said on Telegram, urging the world to hold Russia to account. “We will definitely respond.”
Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said that 22 children were among the wounded and nine people including two children wer..

A five-year-old boy was on his way to a soccer game when federal immigration agents detained him and his father, who are now being held in a notorious Texas detention center that local officials and members of Congress are demanding be shut down.
Liam Tadeo was due to start kindergarten this week when his father was put in handcuffs after a traffic stop in Austin, Texas, on August 16, according to video of the arrest and statements from family members. Footage shows federal agents walking his father in handcuffs while Liam, in tears, holds his father’s hand.
Democratic Rep. Greg Casar compared the scene to a similar incident in Minneapolis earlier this year, where another five-year-old boy named Liam was pictured crying while wearing a blue bunny-ear hat and a Spider-Man backpack as his father was hauled away by federal agents.
“Liam should be starting kindergarten this week, but instead he’s sitting in a trailer prison right now in Dilley, Texas,” Casar said in a video message Thursda..

There is a move that daytime television producers make when a show has run out of plot. A character who died — buried, mourned, whose death powered two seasons of grief — walks back through the door. There was a secret hospital. There was an identical twin. The coma was faked.
Ratings spike for a week while the audience waits to find out what it meant, and then the writers discover they have nothing for the character to do, because the return was never a story. It was a substitute for one.
That is what aired on WABC radio on Thursday night, and it is worth being clear about who it was for.
Michael Cohen spent a decade as Donald Trump's fixer, went to federal prison, testified against him in a Manhattan courtroom and helped produce 34 felony convictions. Trump called him a rat. Cohen built a second career calling Trump a criminal.
Eight years of that, and the reckoning Thursday lasted under a minute.
“A good advocate, and then they weaponized you like nobody's ever been wea..

President Donald Trump’s main liaison to Congress will leave the White House a week after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced her exit.
The president announced on Thursday that James Braid would exit the White House in September. Braid is a close ally of Vice President JD Vance, working in Vance’s Senate office.
Specifically, the president highlighted how Braid navigated working with a tight majority in the House of Representatives to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill that extended the tax cuts from Trump’s first term and beefed up funding for immigration enforcement as well as GENIUS Act, Trump’s major cryptocurrency legislation.
“James has played a critical role in our many accomplishments with Congress, including THE ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, beating the Democrats in two shutdown showdowns, passing the GENIUS Act, defeating a record number of War Powers resolutions, and the confirmation of my Cabinet at the fastest rate in decades,” Trump said. “This has been, and..

Seasonal allergy sufferers beware: This fall is looking like a pollen bomb in many parts of the United States, due to increasingly warm and wet weather.
More than two dozen eastern and midwestern states are projected to feel the worst effects, according to forecaster AccuWeather’s latest report.
These regions will see the highest amount of weed and grass pollen, typically dominant in late summer and early fall.
“For grass pollen, we start to lose the worst of it in August and early September, but things can still be high in parts of the East due to ample moisture and warm overnight temperatures,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert said in a statement.
The highest grass pollen levels are predicted in major cities, including Detroit, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City.
open image in galleryThis AccuWeather graphic shows where grass pollen levels will be the highest this fall. The highest levels are seen in red, moderate levels in orange ..

The Israeli military has confirmed for the first time that it fired on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and her family.
It also announced that it has launched an investigation into her killing in a statement on Wednesday.
A separate probe will investigate the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics in Gaza in May 2025 but the military said it would not launch an inquiry into three other high-profile attacks that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen and Doctors Without Borders.
The military said it had completed a review of over 150 incidents involving Israeli troops in Gaza and had decided on five cases, including that of Hind and her family.
It did not mention the Israeli strikes on a hospital in southern Gaza that killed five journalists in August 2025, including Maryam Abu Daqqa, a photojournalist for the Independent’s partner site Independent Arabia.
open image in galleryHind Rajab was found dead in a car alongside her relatives (Family handout)Hind was killed alo..

At least one patient has been left permanently paralyzed and three others harmed after anesthetic was inadvertently swapped with a potentially-deadly substance during routine surgery, according to reports.
State regulators launched an investigation into the incident at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown in Nashville, Tennessee, which occurred late last week during standard procedures requiring epidurals for pain management.
The family of one victim, a 72-year-old woman from Centerville admitted for a knee replacement, told ABC affiliate WKRN she now has no feeling from the chest down.
“The joint replacement went wonderful,” her daughter-in-law Kristina Dorton said, describing the patient as someone who has always been active and fit. “Her knee is great. The rest of her is not.
“Currently, she has zero feeling, movement, or response to pain from her breastbone down. We don’t know what recovery looks like or if there is recovery. This is life-changing. You don’t come out of this without som..

On Monday, President Donald Trump made yet another unprecedented and violent threat against a country in the Middle East.
But this time the target of his ire was unexpected. Oman, an American ally for almost 200 years, would be bombed “to s***” if it interfered with a potential US-Iran peace deal, Trump told a FOX News reporter.
It was not the first time that Trump had threatened Oman, previously warning the country in May to “behave” or face potential military action.
Throughout the US-Israeli war in Iran, Muscat has endured retaliatory strikes across its ports and energy infrastructure but has still taken part in negotiations towards a resolution.
The Strait of Hormuz runs between both countries and it therefore has a personal interest in progress.
But Trump, growing increasingly frustrated with deadlocked talks after a 60-day interim deal expired on Monday, lashed out at the US ally on Monday warning: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them.”
Tehran says it has ..

Voters in Florida head to the polls on Tuesday as a Republican campaigning to become the state's first Black governor faces a crowded field and Democrats wage primary battles for a reduced pool of left-leaning seats under redrawn congressional maps.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is banking on President Donald Trump’s endorsement to claim the Republican gubernatorial nomination ahead of November. He is challenged in the primary by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and political newcomer James Fishback.
Leading the Democratic field for governor is David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who changed party affiliation last year.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a prominent conservative who has both aligned and clashed with Trump, cannot seek election to a third straight term due to limits.
open image in galleryU.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is facing off against Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and political newcomer James Fishback in the primary (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)Tuesday’s primary contests will finalize the Nove..