News
Trump issues fiery new threat against Iran as details of US aviator’s rescue emerge
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday made expletive-laden new threats to escalate strikes on Iran and its infrastructure if it doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline, after American forces rescued an aviator whose Iran-downed plane fell behind enemy lines.
A defiant Iran struck infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries, challenged the U.S. account of the rescue and threatened to restrict another heavily used waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Arabian Peninsula.
In a social media post, Trump vowed to hit Iran’s power plants and bridges and said the country would be “living in Hell” if the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for global trade, isn’t opened by Tuesday. He ended with “Praise be to Allah.”
Trump has issued such deadlines before but extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war, which has killed thousands, shaken global markets and spiked fuel prices in just over five weeks.
“It seems Trump has become a phenomenon that neither Iranians nor Americans are able to fully analyze,” Iranian Culture Minister Sayed Reza Salihi-Amiri told visiting Associated Press journalists in an interview in Tehran, adding that the president “constantly shifts between contradictory positions.”
Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets like oil fields and desalination plants critical for drinking water. Iran’s U.N. mission called Trump’s threat “clear evidence of intent to commit war crime.”
Iran’s military joint command warned of stepped-up attacks on regional oil and civilian infrastructure if the U.S. and Israel attack such targets there, according to state television.
The laws of armed conflict allow attacks on civilian infrastructure only if the military advantage outweighs the civilian harm, legal scholars say. It’s considered a high bar to clear, and causing excessive suffering to civilians can constitute a war crime.
U.S. describes a dramatic rescue
An intense search followed Friday’s crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, while Iran promised a reward for the “enemy pilot.” It was the first known American aircraft to crash in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.
Trump said that the service member was “seriously wounded and really brave” and rescued from “deep inside the mountains” in an operation involving dozens of armed aircraft. He said a second crew member was rescued in “broad daylight” within hours of the crash.
A senior U.S. administration official said that prior to locating the pilot, the CIA spread word inside Iran that U.S. forces had found him and were moving him for exfiltration, confusing Iranian officials. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.
Iran also shot down another U.S. military plane, demonstrating both the perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of Iran’s degraded military to hit back. Neither the status of the A-10 attack aircraft’s crew nor where it crashed is known.
On Sunday, Iran’s state television aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of U.S. aircraft — a transport plane and two helicopters — shot down by Iranian forces during the rescue operation.
However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told the AP that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes because of a technical malfunction and brought in additional aircraft to complete the rescue. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.
Two Black Hawk helicopters were hit but navigated to safe airspace, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive information.
Diplomatic efforts continue
Trump’s deadline centers on growing alarm over Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, critical for shipments of oil and gas from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia as well as humanitarian supplies. Some ships have paid Iran for passage.
An Iranian presidential spokesperson, Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabaei, said on social media that the strait can reopen only if some transit revenues compensate Iran for war damages.
A top Iranian adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned on social media that Tehran also could disrupt trade on the Bab el-Mandeb, a key waterway to and from the Suez Canal.
Diplomatic efforts continued. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said that deputy foreign ministers and experts from Iran and Oman met to discuss proposals to ensure “smooth transit” through the strait. Oman has often served as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran.
Egypt said that Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had spoken with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and with Turkish and Pakistani counterparts. Russia said that Araghchi also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Iran strikes Gulf targets
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said that four people — one Nepali and three Pakistani — were hurt in fires caused by debris from the interception of an Iranian projectile at Khor Fakkan port, and intercepted debris caused fires at a petrochemical plant in Ruwais, halting operations.
In Kuwait, Iranian drone attacks caused significant damage to power plants and a petrochemical plant. They also put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity.
In Bahrain, a drone attack caused a fire at one of the national oil company’s storage facilities and a state-run petrochemical plant, the kingdom’s official news agency said.
In Israel, rescue authorities said that they were searching for three people in the northern city of Haifa after an apartment building was hit. It wasn’t immediately clear what struck it.
Meanwhile, more than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
___
Bassem Mroue reported from Tehran, Iran, Sam Metz from Jerusalem and Samy Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Lisa Mascaro and Seung Min Kim in Washington; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; and Farnoush Amiri in New York; contributed to this report.
One meeting that appears to be absent from King Charles III’s carefully planned schedule in the United States this week is any reunion with Prince Harry.
On a four-day state visit intended in part to repair bruised U.S.-British relations, Charles’s itinerary currently includes no plans to see Harry, his 41-year-old son, who lives in California with his wife, Meghan, and their two children.
Buckingham Palace officials declined to comment when asked whether the king and his younger son would meet. Charles and Queen Camilla are scheduled to be in Washington on Tuesday and New York on Wednesday before departing on Thursday.
The family fell out publicly when Harry, who holds the title Duke of Sussex, withdrew from royal duties in 2020 and relocated to California in an act of self-exile. In the years since, their relationship has been tested again and again.
Harry wrote a tell-all memoir about growing up in the royal family and produced a six-part Netflix series about his relationship with Meghan, which detailed his rift with his brother, Prince William, with whom he remains estranged. And he pursued a lawsuit challenging the decision by British authorities to withdraw his family’s publicly-financed security protection during their visits to Britain.
In an interview last May, Harry told the BBC that the lawsuit — which he lost — had become a “sticking point,” further distancing him from his father. He expressed concern for the king’s health, following his father’s diagnosis with an undisclosed form of cancer the year before.
“I would love reconciliation with my family,” Harry said in that interview.
Last September, Charles and Harry met for the first time in 19 months, an encounter that some hoped represented a rapprochement. The BBC reported that they spent around an hour together, having tea privately in Clarence House, the king’s London residence.
In the months since, the rift has been overshadowed by another, more damaging family scandal. The king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested amid allegations that he had shared confidential government information with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew, whose royal titles were previously stripped over his ties to Mr. Epstein, has denied wrongdoing.
Andrew’s withdrawal from royal life has contributed to an image of a shrunken and fractured royal family. Speaking days after Andrew’s arrest with Britain’s Channel 4 News, Harry did not directly address the subject of his uncle but acknowledged, with an awkward chuckle, that there had been “a lot of stuff in the news.”
Federal law enforcement agencies are conducting a series of raids connected to the Somali fraud investigation in Minnesota on Tuesday morning, federal authorities have said.
The raids are not part of an immigration enforcement operation.
“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said.
At least 22 federal search warrants were executed in Minnesota on Tuesday morning, a senior Justice Department official told NBC News. It was not immediately clear how many total raids occurred.
At least one of the raids appears to be at the Somali Senior Center and Adult Day Services facility, as federal law enforcement can be seen going in and out of the building.
King Charles III of Britain will acknowledge on Tuesday that his country has had its differences with the United States, but he plans to tell a joint session of Congress that the “two countries have always found ways to come together,” according to a preview of his remarks by Buckingham Palace.
The king’s speech is a centerpiece of his first visit to the former colonies as Britain’s monarch. It comes at a fraught time for the relationship between the two governments, with President Trump mocking Prime Minister Keir Starmer for refusing to join the war in Iran.
But in his speech, the king plans to say that the story of the two countries over the past 250 years has been marked by “reconciliation and renewal,” and has produced what he will call “one of the greatest alliances in human history.”
The king and Queen Camilla began planning for their American trip months before the tensions emerged between Mr. Trump and Mr. Starmer. And British officials and representatives of Buckingham Palace have repeatedly said the king does not get involved in day-to-day politics or foreign policy.
But privately, officials have said they are hopeful that the core message in the king’s speech might help to soothe tensions between the president and the prime minister. The palace said he will argue that shared democratic values are woven deeply into the fabric of both countries.
Palace officials said the king will briefly reference the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, offering sympathy to Mr. Trump and those who attended.
But he will focus on the things the United States and Britain have done together. In particular, palace officials said, he will speak about cooperation in the Middle East and Ukraine and will take note of the NATO defense pact and the submarine partnership with Australia and the United States.
Mr. Trump has been particularly brutal in his assessment of the British Navy, calling the country’s battleships “toys.” The palace said the king will speak with particular pride about the Royal Navy and its successes.
Mr. Trump has said he is a fan of the royals, often citing the fact that when he was 6, he watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the king’s mother.
The royal couple’s arrival at Joint Base Andrews kicked off two days of pomp and circumstance in Washington. The king, dressed in a blue suit, and the queen, wearing a pink coat dress, listened as the U.S. military band played the national anthems of Britain and the United States.
The king and queen were greeted by the State Department’s top official in charge of protocol. They walked through an honor cordon of U.S. military personnel before heading to the White House for their first formal stop.
There, the royal couple met briefly with Mr. Trump and Melania Trump, the first lady, and viewed a new White House beehive.
The hive, on the South Lawn, is shaped like a miniature White House and is the home for two new bee colonies. Mrs. Trump last week unveiled the latest work of presidential apiculture, the science of maintaining honey bee colonies for pollination, honey production and wax.
The first official White House bee colonies were installed in 2009 by Michelle Obama, the first lady at the time. The bees supported pollination of the White House vegetable garden that Mrs. Obama created as part of her push for healthy eating.
Hives installed by Mrs. Obama support as many as 70,000 bees during peak summer months, according to the White House, and can produce up to 225 pounds of honey a year. The Trump administration said Mrs. Trump’s new hive could increase production to over 255 pounds of honey annually.
The visit to the White House beehive is a nod to the king’s longstanding interest in environmental issues and conservation.
There are four beehives in the gardens around Buckingham Palace and two more outside Clarence House, the official residence of the royal couple. The official royal website notes that the queen produces honey that is sold at the store Fortnum & Mason to raise money for charity.
Monday’s events concluded with a garden party for the king and queen at the British Embassy. The guest list included White House officials like Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, and his wife, Katie Miller; the House speaker, Mike Johnson; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The president and the king will have a private meeting on Tuesday before the king addresses Congress in the afternoon. Mr. Trump will host a state banquet for the royal couple on Tuesday evening.
The king and queen will head to New York City on Wednesday morning, where they will lay a wreath at the Sept. 11 memorial and participate in a gala that evening. The king will also visit a youth organization in Harlem, and the queen will participate in an event at the New York Public Library.
On Thursday, the royal couple will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and travel to rural parts of Virginia.
-
Detroit, MI30 seconds agoJackson Jobe throws first bullpen in return from Tommy John surgery
-
San Francisco, CA12 minutes ago
Oakland, California, airport can use ‘San Francisco’ in name after settlement
-
Dallas, TX18 minutes ago
Cowboys LB coach ‘feels really good’ after NFL draft, new additions
-
Miami, FL24 minutes ago2 more Miami Beach Commissioners endorse Vicki Lopez for Miami-Dade Commission
-
Boston, MA31 minutes ago99 Restaurant in Charlestown may close for apartments
-
Denver, CO36 minutes agoRe/Max to be sold, headquarters to leave Denver
-
Seattle, WA42 minutes agoSeattle’s drug diversion plan falters as open-air use persists in neighborhood hotspots
-
San Diego, CA49 minutes agoMojo, San Diego’s pro volleyball team, will cease operations after 2026 season
