Pakistan says it’s continuing diplomatic efforts to end the war between the United States and Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But President Donald Trump told Al Jazeera he’s got “no time schedule” to resolve the conflict reaching the six-month mark on Friday. Trump said he thinks the U.S. is “winning very big.” U.S. voters will soon get their say. The Iran war has undermined Trump’s campaign pledge to steer clear of foreign conflicts and challenges Republicans clinging to narrow majorities in Congress.
Here’s the Latest:
HHS responds to AP report on Kennedy’s letter about measles vaccine
The Department of Health and Human Services said in response to questions from the AP that the Samoa visit “was unrelated to vaccines.”
“Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory,” the department said in a written statement.
Kennedy was not under oath during his confirmation hearing. Knowingly giving material false testimony to Congress is a crime that carries a possible prison sentence regardless of whether a person is under oath, though it is rarely prosecuted.
HHS did not make Kennedy available for an interview. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Samoan prime minister’s office and the former prime minister who corresponded with Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy led.
AP exclusive: RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that his 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “ nothing to do with vaccines.” New documents obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian refute that testimony.
Kennedy, then a prominent anti-vaccine activist, preceded the visit with a letter to the Samoan prime minister requesting to study the Pacific island nation’s measles, mumps and rubella vaccines after the deaths of two children who had received them. In the letter, he used the words vaccine or vaccination eight times.
The letter raises questions about how truthful Kennedy was in testimony before Congress. During an arduous confirmation process where he needed the support of some skeptical Republican lawmakers to advance, Kennedy also pledged to maintain vaccine policies that, once in office, he moved to change.
▶ Read more, including the letters from Kennedy and Samoa’s prime minister
Outgoing White House press secretary talks Texas and her replacement
Karoline Leavitt says there’s “no shortage of applications” to replace her.
“I’ve given my advice to the president on what he should look for, and I’ll continue to do that until he makes a decision,” she told “Fox and Friends” on Thursday that the pick needs to be someone Trump “trusts fully.”
In what Fox hosts billed as her last official interview on the network, Leavitt teased a trip Trump is taking to Houston Thursday evening to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser in support of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign. Trump will visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Friday.
White House says some Americans have been rescued from flooding in Nepal
The U.S. has rescued a handful of Americans in the wake of devastating flooding in Nepal, outgoing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an interview on “Fox and Friends” on Thursday morning.
Leavitt said the U.S. has offered its help to local authorities and will prioritize Americans in its response. “We’re focused on rescuing every American that we possibly can,” she said.
Rescue teams searched Thursday for hundreds of missing people along the Nepal-China border, where the collapse of a glacier sent a catastrophic and deadly torrent of water and mud several stories high sweeping through communities.
Videos of the disaster showed people running before the floodwaters swallowed them up. At least 353 people were killed, police said, and more than 1,300 are missing. Melting glaciers have become more common because of human-caused climate change.
The number of Americans applying for jobless aid slips to 203,000 as layoffs remain low
The Labor Department numbers released Thursday show layoffs are rare and most Americans enjoy job security, but that doesn’t point to a great job market for workers.
Scarred by the worker shortages that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are reluctant to let go of staff. But they aren’t hiring much either. So times are tough for Americans seeking to break into the job market as well as people who lost their jobs and are looking for new work. Economists describe a “no hire, no fire″ job market.
So far this year, employers — companies, nonprofits and government agencies — have added an average 61,000 jobs a month. It’s better than the 9,700 they averaged last year as high interest rates and Trump’s erratic trade policies discouraged companies from hiring. But it’s well below historic hiring patterns.
ICE officer charged in Minneapolis shooting is released from Texas jail
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis was released from a Texas jail Thursday, after a judge refused to order his return to Minnesota.
Christian Castro was released from a detention center in Brownsville, Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino said in an email.
A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. wrote in an order that said he couldn’t prevent a county sheriff from releasing Castro or order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant.
Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Minnesota officials believe Castro could flee to Mexico.
New Fed chair Kevin Warsh under pressure to clarify views on inflation, interest rates
New Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh has brought sharp change in how the central bank communicates by saying much less than his predecessors about the economy and inflation.
But so far, many economists and Wall Street investors haven’t been thrilled with that approach.
On Friday, Warsh has a high-stakes opportunity to address those concerns and underscore his inflation-fighting bona fides when he gives his speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during the Fed’s annual economic symposium.
What many economists and Wall Street analysts are hoping for is a clear signal on how he thinks the Fed should handle the stubbornly elevated inflation that has caused pervasive gloom among many consumers. At his last press conference, he sowed confusion by ducking repeated questions on whether the Fed would hike its benchmark interest rate if inflation stays high.
After six months of Iran war, US goals have shifted. The Strait of Hormuz is now a top concern
When Trump launched the war with Iran in late February, he initially forecast it would last four to five weeks. Six months later, there’s still no off-ramp in sight despite Trump’s repeated assertions that the war has been won or a deal to resolve it was nearly complete.
A June memorandum of understanding designed to pave the way to end the war has fallen by the wayside.
One of the prime goals now — reopening the Strait of Hormuz — was not one of Trump’s original objectives. The waterway had been a vital shipping lane through which about 20% of the world’s oil passed.
But Iran seized on it as a chokepoint for the global economy and it has been largely closed since the war started, driving up prices for fuel and fertilizer needed for farms and creating economic and political pressure in the U.S.
The U.S. has had tactical success on its goals to degrade Iran’s military capabilities. But some of the other key objectives Trump laid out at the start of the conflict remain unfulfilled.
Judge denies Minnesota’s bid to compel the extradition of an ICE officer from Texas
A federal judge on Wednesday refused to order Texas to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. wrote in an order that he couldn’t prevent a county sheriff from releasing Christian Castro or order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant.
The Cameron County sheriff said he would release Castro on Thursday morning.
Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
After a Minnesota judge issued a nationwide warrant for Castro’s arrest in May, authorities, including Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested Castro in Cameron County on May 29. Minnesota authorities have sought his extradition since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico.
Under Texas law and barring extradition, Castro must be released after 90 days of detention, which is Thursday.
Republicans face a midterm verdict as Iran war drags on months longer than Trump promised
The Iran war has reshaped the rapidly approaching midterm elections, undermining Trump’s campaign pledge to steer clear of foreign conflicts and challenging Republicans who would rather focus on their tax cuts as they cling to narrow majorities in Congress.
While the president’s supporters are undeterred, the war’s unpopularity and economic ripple effects could tilt the scales in tightly contested U.S. House districts.
Midterm elections are always difficult for the party in power in Washington. But interviews with voters around the country show how a war that Trump expected to end with a swift victory could undermine the final years of his presidency.
About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worth fighting, according to a July poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as more than one-third of Republicans.
In Congress, Republicans have shifted from initially cheerleading Trump’s moves in Iran to expressing concern about the toll of the war.
Faltering diplomatic efforts to end Iran war continue
Pakistan said Thursday that it was continuing diplomatic efforts to help resolve the crisis between the United States and Iran, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said at a news briefing that Field Marshal Asim Munir’s recent visit to Tehran was aimed at reviving the June memorandum of understanding to reopen the strait.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani is expected in Tehran on Thursday for talks with Iranian officials on “ways to de-escalate tensions & create the conditions conducive to dialogue,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said on X.
The discussions, confirmed by Tehran, will also address “freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz and the need to return to the prewar status quo, according to Majed Al Ansari, an agency spokesperson.
But U.S. President Donald Trump told Al Jazeera by phone on Wednesday that he has “no time schedule” to wrap up the conflict that will reach the six-month mark on Friday. Trump told the Qatar-based broadcaster that he believes the United States is “winning very big.”
The Associated Press
