World
US intends further strikes on Iran-backed groups, national security adviser says
The United States intends to launch further strikes at Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday, after hitting Tehran-aligned factions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen over the last two days.
The United States and Britain unleashed attacks against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, a day after the U.S. military hit Tehran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.
“We intend to take additional strikes, and additional action, to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday.
The strikes are the latest blows in a conflict that has spread into the Middle East since Oct. 7.
The Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts to stem the fallout from the war also continued with top diplomat Antony Blinken departing for the region on Sunday afternoon.
Tehran-backed groups declaring support for the Palestinians have entered the fray across the region: Hezbollah has fired at Israeli targets at the Lebanese-Israeli border, Iraqi militias have fired on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis have fired on shipping in the Red Sea and at Israel itself.
Iran has so far avoided any direct role in the conflict, even as it backs those groups. The Pentagon has said it does not want war with Iran and does not believe Tehran wants war either.
Sullivan declined to be drawn on whether the United States might attack sites inside Iran, something the U.S. military has been very careful to avoid.
Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation” program moments earlier, he said Friday’s strikes were “the beginning, not the end, of our response, and there will be more steps – some seen, some perhaps unseen”.
“I would not describe it as some open-ended military campaign,” he said.
Saturday’s strikes in Yemen hit buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems, launchers and other capabilities the Houthis have used to attack Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said, adding it targeted 13 locations.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the strikes “will not pass without a response and consequences”, Reuters reported.
World
Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says
World
US Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
The U.S. Senate easily passed sweeping Russia sanctions legislation on Friday, advancing a long-delayed measure backed by late Senator Lindsey Graham and setting the stage for consideration by the House of Representatives within weeks, Reuters reported.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
It also includes expanded sanctions on Iran sought by President Donald Trump as lawmakers pushed for a vote on the measure well over a year since it was introduced in 2025.
The Senate’s Republican leaders had not brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term in January 2025.
The Senate voted 86-11 to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” to sanction Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
However, broad support may not be enough to secure House passage, with some lawmakers and industries wary that new tariff powers for Trump could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers while exposing Republicans to political blowback.
Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, read the report.
“What the bill does grant … are sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
Trump’s fellow Republicans control only slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
Only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.
The chamber erupted into applause after Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, read out the final tally.
The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities, Reuters reported.
If it is approved by the House and signed into law by Trump, the measure would allow the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.
The legislation’s backers insist that the tariffs are narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine without negative consequences.
Supporters called the legislation the best opportunity to support Ukraine, and the strong bipartisan Senate vote provided momentum for it to pass the House after it returns from its summer recess on August 31.
Graham had announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation.
The legislation lets the president impose targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia’s evasion of sanctions.
The bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion. The measure includes a provision to prevent a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.
World
Two dead, including gunman, at school shooting in Thailand, officials sayd
The incident took place in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
At least one teacher was killed and four other people injured by a student who opened fire at a school in Thailand north of Bangkok on Friday before killing himself, authorities said, Reuters reported.
Lt. Col. Dechrapee Kongdee Nonthaburi Provincial Police Commander confirmed the casualties to Reuters and said the suspected gunman had committed suicide. Among those injured were one teacher and three students, he said.
The incident took place in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
In photos circulated by emergency workers, students streamed out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the northwestern outskirts of Bangkok, as ambulances operated. In one photo, one person is seen lying down on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic, read the report.
In the 2025 academic year, the school had an enrollment of around 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
In February a teacher died and a student was injured in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district after a gunman opened fire at a school.
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