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  US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth listen to questions from the press during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Maryland, on July 31, 2026; illustrative (photo credit: Aaron Schwartz / AFP via Getty Images) Top aides to US President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November's midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, four people familiar with the discussions said, a strategy that is already under strain as the United States and Iran resume their back-and-forth attacks. White House officials will consider ramping up military action after the November 3 vote, said the sources, who requested anonymity to describe internal thinking, though any return to full-scale conflict is far from a given. For now, they said, the administration is focused on tightening the economic pressure on Iran in an effort to extract concessions in any future negotiation that months of military action failed to secure.

  " Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue efforts to disarm Hamas during a visit to a military outpost in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday alongside IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Eyal Zamir. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks from Gaza's Yellow Line on September 2, 2026. (credit: Prime Minister's Office) "We control the area and remain on this line," Netanyahu said, referring to the Yellow Line. "We are doing everything to reach our goal." This is a developing story. Go to the full article > >

  A IDF soldier operating on Israel's border with Syria, September 9, 2025. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM) Settler violence in the West Bank is causing diplomatic damage to Israel but has declined in recent months, while an Israeli attempt to reach a security agreement with Syria has failed, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said on Wednesday. According to the official, the number of violent incidents involving settlers, including serious incidents, has fallen in recent months, while enforcement activity and arrests have increased. A  senior Israeli said that talks on a security agreement with Damascus failed, and that no progress has been on disarming Hamas

  Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (L) shakes hands with the United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the UN's General Assembly. (photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images) The UN’s official readout of the meeting said Guterres and Pezeshkian discussed the humanitarian and economic consequences of the conflict between Iran and the US. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres came under fire from watchdogs after he failed to publicly address the killing of protesters in January and executions carried out by the Iranian regime during a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this week. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Shanghai Plus summits in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Tuesday.

The US Treasury on Wednesday issued $1 coins featuring the face of President Donald Trump, the latest move in an unprecedented campaign by the Republican billionaire to put his personal stamp on national institutions. The coins were minted to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States celebrated this year. A roll of 25 $1 coins was available for sale for $61 — a mark-up of 144 percent — with a 100-coin bag available for $154.50. When the Treasury announced the plan it was unclear if the coins would have monetary value or would be purely commemorative, but on Wednesday the US Mint said the coins were “also in circulation.” The move to put Trump’s countenance on a coin with monetary value runs counter to federal law that says no living president may appear on US currency. Trump has aggressively defied precedent and legal challenges in his push to remake US institutions in his second term, putting his name on the Kennedy Center for the Arts and demolishing the East Wi...

  US Soldiers, assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, deplane a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft after touching down at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait. (photo credit: US Air Force/Senior Airman Taylor Crul/Handout via REUTERS) The IRGC’s decision to target American bases, assets and allies, barring Israel, is part of a strategy to see the US knocked out of the region before any renewed war with Israel, military historian and analyst Tom Cooper told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Iran launched retaliatory strikes on US-linked sites in Jordan , Kuwait, and Bahrain overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, following the US’s renewal of strikes against IRGC targets in Iran on Tuesday. On the Israeli side, Cooper said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely trying to “spend” American military support while he has it.

  US President Donald Trump suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz to the Trump Strait in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.  "Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be “hotter” than ever before," he wrote.  “I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday , a day before floating the name change. It’s also unclear how Trump would actually rename the strait. When he signed an executive order last month renaming Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” he directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the federal Geographic Names Information System. Canada rejected the change, though Google Maps and Apple Maps have already updated to reflect it. Trump made a similar move early in his second term when he renamed th...