Event: US

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday it planned to revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreign nationals who ​have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the U.S., ‌marking its ‌latest step in a sweeping immigration crackdown.A State Department spokesman said ​it was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant 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.”The State Department statement did not specify ⁠the number of visas that will be revoked in the process.The Associated Press put the number of foreign nationals whose business and tourism visas is ​planned to be revoked at ⁠up to 200,000, which if materialized, would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history. The AP cited ⁠State Department documents and ​two U.S. officials.The State Department will revoke so-called B1 ​and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought ​asylum or are ‌now seeking asylum, the AP report added. The B1 and B2 nonimmigrant visas are issued for business and tourism travel.The visa revocations would not necessarily result in immediate deportation, the AP report said, adding that most of those with ‌asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers.Earlier on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau alleged on X that the American immigration system “has long been swamped by frivolous asylum claims.”The State Department said earlier this ​month ​that under the Trump administration, it has revoked more than 175,000 ​visas of foreign nationals.Trump has pursued an immigration crackdown that includes revocations of visas and ⁠green cards and an aggressive deportation drive. He says the crackdown aims to improve domestic security.Rights groups say the…

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced a new wave of sanctions against Iran and its "enablers", towards what he described as an "asphyxiation of this regime" amid the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz. "Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy," Bessent told reporters in Washington, DC.  It remains unclear how "a path to normalcy" may work, given the Trump administration has only ever tightened sanctions on Iran since its first iteration in the White House in 2017.  "Today, we are launching Operation Economic Outcast to foreclose every other option available to the Iranian regime," Bessent declared. "America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it."  Using a "zero leakage approach", he said the Treasury had "mapped every node, every facilitator, and every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions", and that President Donald Trump had already made phone calls to counterparts around the world "with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime".  Read more: Trump unleashes swathe sanctions on Iran 'enablers'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu votes in the Likud party primary elections ahead of Israel’s general election in October, in Jerusalem on Aug. 17. | REUTERS Jerusalem – After decades of urging the United States to attack Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally got his wish. But after six months of inconclusive hostilities, Israel may ultimately find itself in a worse position than it was before the war.The Islamic republic, which Netanyahu has long cast as an existential threat, has not only survived, but appears emboldened.Underlying Netanyahu’s dilemma have been the wild swings in the approach of U.S. President Donald Trump, who joined Israel in launching the conflict in late February, but by April abruptly called a ceasefire and sought a negotiated settlement in the face of souring public opinion and soaring oil prices. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

For 47 years, the Islamic Republic has bedeviled U.S. presidents. The 1979 Iran hostage crisis helped doom Jimmy Carter’s reelection bid. The Iran-contra scandal in the mid-1980s badly tarnished Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy record. And Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), led to an unprecedented situation in which the U.S. Congress invited a foreign leader, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Washington to argue against it.In February, when he launched his war against Iran, President Donald Trump declared that he intended to break this embarrassing pattern once and for all. By crushing Iran militarily and effecting regime change, he boasted that whereas other presidents had only talked about the Iranian threat, he was taking decisive action to end it. But six months later, Trump has become yet another U.S. president facing a dangerous humiliation related to Iran; the fallout from his excursion threatens his party’s prospects in the midterm elections. Now, perhaps in desperation, Trump is attempting to squeeze an economic noose around Tehran. But as it is constructed, this economic-pressure operation poses a greater threat to U.S. credibility than it does to Iran's economy.In truth, the multifaceted war Trump has launched is not a break with precedent but the apotheosis of the same flawed strategy that has undergirded U.S. policy toward Iran from the Islamic Republic’s inception, in 1979. Iran’s theocratic regime has continually flummoxed U.S. administrations in part because it contains profound contradictions. It is simultaneously ideological and transactional. Tehran continues to adhere to the core features of its revolutionary ideology, including its anti-American and anti-Israeli foreign policy, but can also act with pragmatism when circumstances demand it. Iran accepted meaningful limits on its nuclear program in 2015, for instance, and reversed decades of hostility toward Saudi Arabia by normalizing…

The debate about American grand strategy has long been shaped by familiar schools of thought: restraint, liberal internationalism, and primacy. But the intellectual movement that provided the ideological fuel for U.S. President Donald Trump’s rise to power, the New Right, is forging a new contender: call it “civilizationism.” References to Western civilization permeate strategy documents and speeches by key members of the administration. Vice President JD Vance set the tone in his February 2025 speech at the Munich Security Conference, stressing the “threat from within” to the fundamental values that characterize “our shared civilization.” The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy warned of “civilizational erasure.” This January, at Davos, Trump emphasized “the bonds we share with Europe as a civilization”; the next month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on the United States’ transatlantic partners to “renew the greatest civilization in human history.”The notion that there is a Western civilization and that it is superior is, of course, not new. But the concept of the West espoused by the New Right—and how that concept ought to guide U.S. grand strategy—is fundamentally different from how most had previously understood it. It is not based on a creedal understanding of Western identity as rooted in a shared set of principles that anyone, regardless of origin, can espouse, such as constitutional democracy, liberty, and equality. Instead, for thinkers on the New Right, the West is defined by a specific geographic territory, a shared ancestry, and Christianity.Extended to the realm of foreign policy, this reimagination of the foundations of Western civilization demands a new and distinct grand strategy. Civilizationism is still a work in progress. Writings on foreign policy by New Right thinkers are limited, and the camp is internally divided. But by examining those texts and following the movement’s domestic ideas to their logical…

US Senator Chris Murphy has criticised the White House’s new sanctions on Iran, warning that American citizens are "paying a huge, huge cost" for the decision.  "'D-Day' is desperate window dressing. Iran is winning the war. Trump is losing. And Americans are paying a huge, huge cost," he said in a post on X.  In a series of posts, Murphy went onto list a number of reasons for Washington's setbacks during its war on Iran, including not achieving initial war objectives, Tehran's control of the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the depletion of army resources, including its munition supply.  "The bottom line: Trump lost the military campaign. And now he's desperate so in his humiliating defeat, he's selling this fake economic pressure to keep up the impression we are still fighting," the US senator added.  "But the war is basically over. Tragically, Iran won. This is all window dressing." "D-Day" is desperate window dressing. Iran is winning the war. Trump is losing. And Americans are paying a huge, huge cost. 1/ Let's review where we are, and why these sanctions are another fool's errand. https://t.co/8sGWeWmazh — Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 24, 2026

Asim Munir, Pakistan's army commander, held "constructive consultations" on Monday with senior Iranian officials regarding regional peace and how to resolve escalating tensions, Iranian state media reported.  The talks were held during Munir's one-day visit to Tehran as part of Islamabad's "diplomatic efforts to end the deadlock in US-Iran talks and explore ways to achieve lasting peace and a permanent end to instability in the region.", IRNA reported.  Prominent Iranian figures that participated in the discussions included Masoud Pezhakian, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mohsen Rezaee, Seyed Abbas Araghchi and Eskandar Momeni. 

A federal judge on Monday postponed a trial in the US for a former Libyan intelligence official charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, citing the discovery of new evidence that defence lawyers want to examine in the nearly 40-year-old case.Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday for the federal trial of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi in Washington DC. His trial will be the first in the US for the December 21, 1988, bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, most of them Americans.US District Judge Dabney Friedrich’s order did not specify the nature of the newly discovered evidence.Al-Marimi’s lawyers say prosecutors disclosed the new evidence to them on Saturday and added that their “constitutional and ethical obligations require the defence to investigate this development”. Defence lawyer Laura Koenig, an assistant federal public defender, declined to elaborate in response to an Associated Press inquiry.The judge scheduled a September 1 hearing in Washington to discuss the status of the case. Friedrich’s brief order cited the complex nature of the case, the newly discovered evidence and “the need for the defence to determine how best to defend this case” as reasons to postpone the trial.Al-Marimi is charged in the US with making the bomb that downed the plane.Former Libyan intelligence official Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi. Photo: Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via Reuters

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges.Unless challenged or revised, the State Department was expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by Associated Press and two US officials. The action would be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.“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.He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis”.The revocations would not necessarily result in their immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorised but would lose their status as business or tourism travellers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet.Since US 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.US President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

Live Blog Update| War on Iran 24 August 2026 22:39 BST Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated US President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the announcement of new sanctions on Iran, dubbed "economic D-Day" by the administration, on Monday, according to a statement from the prime minister's office posted to social media. "You justly exact a steep price from that cruel dictatorship and from those who assist its continued aggression," the statement said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Congratulations President @realDonaldTrump and Secretary @SecScottBessent on the latest sanctions against the Iranian regime. You justly exact a steep price from that cruel dictatorship and from those who assist its continued aggression. — Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 24, 2026

Live Blog Update| War on Iran 24 August 2026 22:30 BST US Central Command (Centcom) said on Monday that the military has redirected 71 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to "ensure compliance" with its naval blockade of Iranian ports. In a post to X, Centcom added that more than 40 vessels supporting humanitarian aid were allowed to pass through the blockade by the US navy. American forces aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) remain vigilant and ready both day and night during enforcement of the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of Aug. 24, CENTCOM forces have redirected 71 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure compliance. More than 40… pic.twitter.com/Iesf1r6kum — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 24, 2026

US President Donald Trump invested as much as US$50,000 ⁠in Elon Musk’s SpaceX in June, according to a public financial disclosure, giving him a financial stake in a major government contractor run by his former adviser.Trump bought between US$15,001 and US$50,000 in shares on June 23, according to a financial disclosure signed ‌by him on August 12 and made public on August 22.The purchase was part of more than 1,000 stock trades the president made in June. SpaceX priced the biggest-ever US IPO on June 12, valuing the space, satellite and AI provider at US$1.77 trillion.In a statement to Reuters, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said third-party financial institutions independently manage the president’s ⁠portfolio and replicate “recognised indexes, such as the Schwab 1000”.“Neither President Trump nor any member of his family ‌has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are bought or sold,” Ingle said in the ‌statement.Trump’s investment in SpaceX adds a new financial link between the president and Musk’s ⁠rocket company at a ⁠time when the administration is making decisions that could affect the firm’s fortunes.