President Donald Trump’s use of a catering truck in a secret escape from a NATO country amid an Iranian threat is the latest embarrassing twist of a war that repeatedly defies his claims of victory. The Secret Service did its job by using whatever method was necessary to spirit Trump out of Turkey in July, ultimately on an alternative jet to one that has been bringing presidents home safely since the 1990s. But belated revelations about the drama, first reported by the Washington Post, kicked up a major new political storm. Most significantly, the ruse conjured up damaging new imagery about an unpopular war that Trump can’t end. The existence of a potential threat against the president doesn’t in itself mean his war against Iran is a failure. But the spectacle of him leaving incognito after a NATO summit is likely to be interpreted overseas as a new affront to...

AP —  A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad along with his younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead. The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family’s five decades in power came to an end 20 months ago. “Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV. Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib, who was convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war. Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a...

President Donald Trump said Monday that “jihadists” are being elected “all over the place” — trying a new, incendiary line of attack against Democrats with the midterm election just three months away. “Well, the one thing is, we have jihadists being elected all over the place,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, without specifying who he was talking about or offering evidence of his claims. “We have this whether it’s communism, jihadism,” Trump added. The president has frequently cast Democrats and democratic socialists as communists, looking to portray the party as increasingly extreme headed into November — even though portrayals of even the party’s most liberal candidates as communists are far from reality. But calling them “jihadists” is a new escalation, which Trump acknowledged in his remarks Monday, recounting that a “friend of mine called up,” and told him, “’You know, really, you should use the word jihadist because...

The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) in Egypt is moving to tighten procedures for verifying the identity of mobile phone line holders by expediting the availability of biometric verification mechanisms through mobile operator phone applications. This step aims to enhance the security of the SIM card registration process and prevent the registration of lines in people’s names without their knowledge, prompting it to take a set of new regulatory measures in cooperation with the four mobile operators.   Importance of Biometric Verification Biometric verification relies on using the user’s unique biometric characteristics to verify their identity, instead of relying solely on traditional personal data. According to the NTRA statement, the new mechanisms will allow mobile phone line holders to verify their identity more securely through mobile operators’ mobile applications, thus strengthening the link between the line owner’s data and the actual holder.   Why biometric verification? This step comes as part...

Reuters —  The Thai teen behind a deadly school shooting outside Bangkok had an air gun confiscated by a teacher last year and had watched violent content online, police said on Sunday, as the government promised new safety protocols for schools. As investigations continued into Friday’s rampage, where a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot dead his grandparents at home before killing another six people at his school before turning the gun on himself, police said the boy had used social media to learn how to use a firearm. “According to witness interviews, the perpetrator had begun showing interest in studying the use of firearms for some time, about one to two years,” Atthapol Anusit, deputy commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 1, told reporters. The boy’s mother, however, said she’d seen no signs of trouble. “He was a bright, cheerful person,” she told Reuters, asking that her name not be used. “He...

The list of demands from Iran can’t have surprised the White House. Hardliners have been repeating the mantra on a daily basis: the limited agreement in the works with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz is not the same as reopening the vital waterway in the way Washington wants. For that, they say, “America must correct its behavior.” Tehran has now spelled out what means, laying out a series of conditions that appear to go beyond the memorandum of understanding which was agreed in June but later suspended amid US strikes on Iran, Iranian retaliation across the Middle East and a resurgence of attacks on shipping. On Saturday, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a highly influential figure in the Revolutionary Guards, reeled off a maximalist set of demands. That Iran is issuing such demands underlines the perception that Tehran believes it has the upper hand. CNN has reported on dwindling US munitions...

Iran is waiting for “final approval” on a proposed framework agreement with Oman for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported yesterday. Under the agreement, Iranian and Omani routes will remain in use temporarily before traffic is redirected through a central course, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. Officials in Iran would oversee inbound traffic, while their Omani counterparts would manage outbound traffic, Fars said. The vital Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed by Iran since the US and Israel began the war back in February. It is the main route for shipping crude from oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the rest of the world. Both Tehran and Muscat have Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in the strait. According to the United Nations, a state has “sovereign rights” to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources of the waters in its...

Cases of AI escaping the lab, infiltrating other companies and trying to deceive people have all made headlines in recent weeks. And in one case, AI models even worked together to break free from their test environments. Does this mean the machines are taking over? Not quite. AI isn’t the mastermind behind today’s most widespread cyber threats; it’s people who can use AI nefariously – and for nefarious purposes. AI has given bad actors massive power, allowing them to create malicious software, research targets, create convincing schemes and automate attacks at an unprecedented pace. One in four data breaches were driven by AI from February 2025 to March 2026, according to an IBM report. And Americans lost more than $893 million to AI-related scams last year, the FBI says. But experts say real-world threat actors – that is, people – are still the ones pulling the strings. AI agents have...

Israel has rejected the latest US plan to move towards the next stage of peace in Gaza, demanding the full disarmament of Hamas before any Israeli forces withdraw. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting Sunday. He said the Israeli military would “not withdraw at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens.” “And when I say disarm Hamas, that means heavy weapons, less-heavy weapons, all weapons. And we are talking about real disarmament, not a fictitious disarmament,” Netanyahu said. “We are now discussing this with the Americans. They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand up to those things.” “As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not...

Destructive wildfires are part of life in much of the US now, as Americans adapt to the warming planet and its more intense weather starts to feel common. This summer, Spokane, Washington, most notably saw neighborhoods decimated and tens of thousands face evacuation. But wildfires affected much of the Western US, leveling homes in Utah and Colorado, among other states, to say nothing of the frightening pictures out of Europe and the smoke that has poured into the US from Canada. President Donald Trump, who has described climate change as a “hoax,” has withdrawn the US from international efforts to address the issue and slashed domestic efforts to counter it, wondered last month if Canada should pay the US damages for smoke that has “poisoned” US air, as if Canada could control either the air flow or the fires any more than the US. His EPA has all but dismantled...