World
Trump says Iran war’s core objectives near completion
The United States will carry out aggressive strikes on Iran over the next two to three weeks and is nearing completion of its main strategic objectives in the war, President Donald Trump said in a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday.
Addressing a war-weary U.S. public, Trump said his military had delivered “swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield,” during 32 days of military strikes and that Iran was no longer a security threat, Reuters reported.
“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said in a nationally televised address.
“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since February 28, when the U.S. and Israel struck Iran, triggering Iranian attacks on Israel, U.S. bases and the Gulf states, while opening a new front in Lebanon.
The conflict, which prompted Iran to shut the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway carrying about a fifth of global oil supplies — has rattled financial markets and weighed on Trump’s sagging approval ratings months ahead of pivotal midterm congressional elections.
Stocks fell and oil prices rose sharply after Trump’s speech, with investors disappointed that a clearer path to swiftly ending the conflict was not spelled out.
Trump said the United States does not need the Strait of Hormuz and he challenged U.S. allies who rely on oil in the region to work toward reopening it.
“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” Trump said. “This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers of neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”
The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and International Energy Agency on Wednesday warned the war was having “substantial, global and highly asymmetric” effects and said they would coordinate their response, including through potential financial support to those countries hit hardest.
NUCLEAR THREAT
In an interview with Reuters earlier on Wednesday, Trump said U.S.-Israeli strikes had ensured Iran would not obtain nuclear weapons, adding that U.S. forces could return with “spot hits” if the threat resurfaces.
“They were right at the doorstep (of a nuclear weapon),” Trump said in his TV address, without providing evidence.
“In these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield,” he said. “We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.”
Prior to Trump’s address, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a letter addressed to the American people that his country harbors no enmity towards ordinary Americans.
Yet prospects for a near-term end to the fighting remained elusive. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran is demanding a guaranteed ceasefire to halt its attacks and said no talks have taken place through intermediaries on a temporary truce. The New York Times reported separately that U.S. intelligence agencies assess Iran is currently unwilling to engage in substantial negotiations to end the war.
Trump said that discussions were ongoing with Iranian leaders he considered less radical than previous leaders.
“Yet if during this period of time, no deal is made we have our eyes on key targets,” Trump said. “If there’s no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants, very hard and probably simultaneously.”
TRUMP CONSIDERS QUITTING NATO
Trump said on social media earlier on Wednesday that Iran had asked for a ceasefire but that he would not consider it until Tehran ceased blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas.
Iran denied making any such request.
Two security sources from Pakistan, which is mediating in the conflict, told Reuters that Islamabad had proposed a temporary ceasefire but had not heard back from either side.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance communicated with intermediaries from Pakistan about the Iran conflict as recently as Tuesday, according to a source briefed on the matter, making clear that Trump was open to a ceasefire if certain demands were met, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the source said.
Trump had suggested on Tuesday he could wind down the war in two to three weeks even without a deal, while scaling up threats to pull the U.S. out of the NATO defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran from blocking the waterway.
In his remarks to Reuters on Wednesday, Trump said he had planned to express his disgust with NATO for what he considers the alliance’s lack of support for U.S. objectives in Iran.
Trump did not explicitly mention NATO in his address, but appeared to be sending a message to European allies, urging countries in need of oil to buy it from the United States or to “build up some delayed courage” and use the Strait of Hormuz.
“Go to the Strait and just take it,” Trump said. “Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy.”
European states have taken pains to appear unruffled, and France’s junior army minister Alice Rufo said operations by NATO in the Strait of Hormuz would be a breach of international law.
World
Supreme Court lets Trump resume deporting migrants to countries not their own
More than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy implemented last year, according to a tally by human rights groups, with the vast majority going to Mexico.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump’s administration resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them the chance to show the harms they may face, bolstering a tool his administration has used for rapid expulsions as part of his immigration crackdown, Reuters reported.
The court granted the Justice Department’s emergency request to put on hold Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy’s ruling that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy to remove migrants to so-called third countries is unlawful. The court also agreed to hear arguments in the dispute in December, with a formal ruling on the policy to follow.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from the decision to let the deportations immediately resume pending the final outcome of the litigation.
Murphy’s ruling came in a class-action lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups on behalf of migrants seeking to prevent the US government from sending them to third countries without notice and a chance to assert the harms they could face.
More than 25,000 migrants have been deported to 29 countries under the policy implemented last year, according to a tally by human rights groups, with the vast majority going to Mexico.
The policy is one of a number of measures the administration has taken in its pursuit of Trump’s goal of mass deportation. The Republican president has enforced a sweeping crackdown on immigration — among his top priorities — since returning to office last year.
The administration has carried out third-country deportations to politically unstable South Sudan, which the US State Department urges Americans to avoid due to the risks of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict, as well as Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, the Central African Republic, and other nations.
Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival welcomed the court’s decision.
“A bad day for criminal illegals and open-borders activists alike,” Percival wrote on social media.
Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the court has “allowed the administration to resume sending people to third countries where they face persecution or torture. That is a devastating result for people who may be put on a plane before they ever have notice or an opportunity to raise a fear claim.”
In February, Murphy ruled that the policy violates immigration law procedures and due process protections under the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. Due process generally requires the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions.
The Supreme Court, which has allowed a number of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, previously sided with the administration in the legal challenge, suspending a preliminary order that Murphy issued earlier in the case halting the removals. In another win for the administration, the Supreme Court subsequently lifted limits the judge had imposed to protect a group of men from being sent to South Sudan, read the report.
The case began in 2025 after the Department of Homeland Security moved to step up deportations of migrants who cannot be returned to any country listed on their deportation orders.
The policy provided that migrants could be swiftly removed without notice to third countries that have provided credible diplomatic assurance that they will not persecute or torture the individuals. For countries that have not provided such assurance, deportees would be notified of their destination and US authorities would assess the likelihood of persecution or torture only if the individual raises such fear on their own.
In its emergency filing to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department said third-country deportations are “an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens.”
But both Murphy and critics of the administration said the policy is also targeting migrants who had been granted legal protection from being sent back to their home countries.
The policy has resulted in deportees being unlawfully transferred by third countries back to their home countries from which the US had already granted them protection, while others have been beaten, sexually assaulted, detained or have disappeared, the plaintiffs said in a court filing.
The administration is ignoring “the significant harm resulting from deporting thousands of longtime US residents, many with no criminal history, to third countries without regard to the persecution or torture they face there,” the plaintiffs said.
The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of the judge’s ruling on September 18.
The case has been hotly contested since it began, and included findings by Murphy that the administration “repeatedly violated, or attempted to violate” his orders. Murphy in 2025 found that the administration had violated another order he issued requiring additional steps before attempting to send a group of migrants to South Sudan.
World
Trump says men arrested at UK air base used by US planned ‘big damage’
WATCH: Trump praises UK authorities for arrests Sunday near RAF airbase used by US forces in England.
British police have arrested five men on suspicion of explosives offences and preparing a terrorist act near RAF Fairford, a UK air base used by the United States military, authorities said.
The arrests were made early Sunday after police received a report of three suspicious vans travelling towards the airfield in Gloucestershire, western England.
US President Donald Trump said the suspects had been under investigation by British and US authorities and were looking to cause “big damage” to the base.
“The arrest in the UK was fantastic,” Trump told reporters, praising cooperation between US and British authorities.
Counter Terrorism Policing said five men remained in custody and that officers were working with partner agencies to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Police placed a 400-metre cordon around the area while bomb disposal experts examined the vehicles. About 85 homes in a nearby village were evacuated, while armed officers patrolled the area.
RAF Fairford has been used by US forces for military operations against Iran. Security was also increased at other UK bases used by the US, including RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall.
A source familiar with the investigation told Reuters an Iranian-linked motive was considered the most likely, while possible Russian involvement or an Islamist plot were also being examined.
No motive has been publicly confirmed by police.
The arrests come amid heightened security concerns in Britain following Iranian warnings over the use of UK bases by US forces. Russia has also been accused by Western governments of supporting sabotage operations in Europe, allegations Moscow has denied.
World
Serbia’s President Vucic resigns ahead of October parliamentary elections
He had said in late June that he planned to resign and that Serbia would hold early parliamentary and presidential elections.
Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic announced his resignation on Sunday, ending his second and final five-year term and paving the way for early presidential elections, Reuters reported.
Vucic’s resignation, seven months before his term ends, comes amid campaigning for Serbia’s October 25 snap parliamentary vote and allows him to be appointed prime minister if his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) forms the new government.
He had said in late June that he planned to resign and that Serbia would hold early parliamentary and presidential elections.
Rights groups have accused Vucic and his allies of increasingly authoritarian rule, with anti-government protesters saying they have been beaten by police and unfairly detained. Authorities have denied those allegations.
On Sunday, hundreds of Vucic’s supporters cheered him in front of the Presidency building in Belgrade’s city centre.
“This is the last evening for me in this building,” he told the flag-waving crowd minutes before resigning.
“I have faithfully served you and my fatherland, Serbia, … I am proud of what we have done together,” he said.
Under Serbia’s constitution, outgoing Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic will serve as interim president until a new one is elected. The presidential election must be completed within 90 days, with the campaign lasting between 30 and 60 days.
“By the end of December … we will have the first round of presidential elections,” Vucic said.
Next month’s snap parliamentary election will pit Vucic’s SNS and its allies against Students Win, a student-led anti-corruption movement, and European Serbia, an alliance of pro-Western opposition parties.
Students Win, European Serbia and other parties have yet to nominate their presidential candidates.
Vucic, 56, has dominated Serbian politics for more than a decade, read the report.
He was a hardline nationalist and information minister during the era of the late Slobodan Milosevic and the wars of the 1990s, and later served as deputy prime minister from 2012-14 and prime minister from 2014-17.
He moved to the largely ceremonial position of president in 2017, but kept tight control over his party and the government.
In foreign policy, Vucic has pursued a balancing act that seeks closer ties with China, a major investor, and Russia, Serbia’s principal supplier of natural gas, while maintaining a long-term goal of joining the EU. He also has sought to bolster ties with the United States and Israel.
Vucic’s term in office suffered a major blow in November 2024 when an awning of a newly reconstructed railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed, killing 16 people.
The disaster sparked nationwide protests by students and the opposition, who demanded accountability for those responsible, transparency in public procurement, an end to systemic corruption, and an early parliamentary vote.
The government repeatedly denied accusations by the protesters, although several officials, including two ministers, were arrested or resigned after the incident.
On Sunday, Vucic said he has granted amnesty and a pardon to 49 people, including 12 activists and 11 of his own supporters, who were arrested or tried in connection with the protests.
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