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President Donald Trump made a startling admission to Axios on Sunday when pressed on whether he intended to escalate his deeply unpopular war against Iran in the near future.Trump’s phone call with the outlet came just one day after he rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war.Trump was asked during the phone call, according to Axios’ Barak Ravid, whether he was considering resuming strikes against Iran in the wake of his refusal to accept Iran’s terms.“I am always thinking about it,” Trump answered.Trump has frequently made violent threats toward Iran, most recently by threatening to commit what The New York Times’ Farnaz Fassihi described as a war crime during his address to the United Nations General Assembly. During his speech, Trump asked himself out loud whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic” and “drive it into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations.”He also told aides last week that he expected to resume bombing Iran after the midterms, according to The Wall Street Journal, and has made countless other threats toward the Middle East nation, perhaps most infamously with his pledge to destroy Iran’s entire civilization in a single night back in April.Beyond his admission that he is “always thinking” about striking Iran, Trump also told Axios that he expected “more talks” with Iranian negotiators this week. However, he also suggested that a deal was unlikely to be made, at least soon, accusing Iran of having “overplayed their hand.”Experts have suspected that Trump’s strategy appears to be centered around inflicting enough economic harm on Iran to bolster the United States’ negotiating position, though those same experts fear that such a strategy could “backfire” with deadly consequences.

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who used to be one of President Donald Trump's most loyal allies, accused her own party on Sunday of pushing fear about a migrant caravan to save itself in the midterms.Greene was responding to a post from right-wing activist Anthony Aguero. He shared video of a group of migrants walking through Mexico and claimed that "over 400 aliens predominantly from Honduras" had entered the country Thursday and were "ready to make their way to the US southern border.""Someone is incentivizing this movement, this is not organic," Aguero wrote.Greene didn't buy that the timing was an accident."We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?" she wrote on X. "Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working."Her post was shared by Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project who studies Latino voters.Republicans have used this strategy before. In the weeks before the 2018 midterms, Trump repeatedly warned about a caravan of Central American migrants heading north. He called it an "invasion" and sent troops to the border. Republicans lost the House that November.Greene, who left Congress after a public split with Trump, has become a sharp critic of the GOP. She has also broken with the president on the Epstein files, foreign wars and the cost of living.Her post came as the administration's own immigration message looked shaky. Over the weekend, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported ICE officers were told to stop arresting immigrants without criminal records, an order the administration quickly called a "miscommunication" and reversed. Meanwhile, some vulnerable Republicans, including Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), have started criticizing Trump's crackdown.We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working. https://t.co/6AHNluG9ps— Marjorie Taylor Greene ???????? (@mtgreenee) September 27, 2026

With President Donald Trump rejecting Iran’s latest proposal to end the war on Saturday, multiple experts suspect the president is risking significant “danger” due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the United States’ negotiating position, one that could have deadly consequences within the next 30 days.Trump told Axios on Sunday that the deal Iran proposed to end the war was “not the deal I want to make,” adding that he may have agreed to the terms “maybe a year ago,” but that Iran had since “overplayed their hand.” Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera for its Sunday report that in actuality, it may be Trump who overplayed his hand.Krieg suspected that Trump was under the belief that “time is improving the U.S. bargaining position,” Al Jazeera wrote, but the problem for the White House, Krieg said, was that “the gamble cuts both ways.”“[Trump] wants Tehran to reopen Hormuz without Washington paying the full economic and political price Iran is currently demanding,” Krieg said. “The danger is that he is confusing Iranian pain with Iranian willingness to capitulate. Those are not the same thing.”Trump’s alleged miscalculation, Krieg warned, could not only fail to bolster the United States’ negotiating position, but could end up backfiring.“So this can backfire,” Krieg told Al Jazeera. “Trump thinks Iran’s clock is running faster than America’s. Tehran thinks the opposite: that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, global energy markets and ultimately Trump himself have a lower tolerance for prolonged disruption than Iran has for economic punishment.”Beyond backfiring on the United States economically, another expert warned that Trump’s hesitance to reach a deal could pose risks to American service members stationed in the Middle East.“All signs point to a major escalation between the US, Iran and Israel. And it may very well be initiated by Tehran itself a week or two before the midterm elections,” warned foreign policy expert Trita Parsi earlier this month.

Seventeen people killed near Johannesburg in suspected ‘illegal goldmining turf war’, as 10 killed in separate incident at barbecue venue near Cape TownTwo separate mass shootings near South Africa’s two biggest cities killed at least 27 people, as the country grapples with one of the world’s highest murder rates amid investigations into corruption and criminality within the police.The South African police service said on Sunday that 17 people were killed on Saturday night when eight suspects armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar in Wedela township, about 50 miles south-west of central Johannesburg. At least 15 other people sustained gunshot injuries in that attack, police said. Continue reading...

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has criticized the Chinese Communist Party for years. On Friday night, she told viewers that the White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping was "historic and epic," and critics online didn't let the change go.Ingraham, who attended the dinner, brought up her past criticism of Beijing on her show, "The Ingraham Angle.""All of you already know how I feel about the CCP, its trade practices, human rights abuses. Not to speak of the cover-up at the Wuhan lab," she said. "Imagine my surprise that I was invited. It was historic and epic."In another segment, which ran under the chyron "TRUMP DEALING WITH XI FROM STRENGTH," she argued that President Donald Trump has the upper hand."China needs us way more than we need China," Ingraham said. "Our economy is booming."Acyn Torabi, who posts political video clips on X, shared both segments. The replies came quickly.Tennis great Martina Navratilova, an outspoken Trump critic, quote-posted the economy clip with a short response: "Umm….nope."John Harwood, a former White House correspondent for CNN and CNBC, answered the dinner clip by throwing Ingraham's word back at her: "this is epic."An X user posting as "Radio Justice" compared her upbeat economic talk to what a loyalist might have told Hitler late in World War II."Yes, Mein Fuhrer, we are winning the war on the Russian Front," the user wrote.Jill E. Friedman, a writer and sculptor, replied with a GIF of Will Ferrell laughing as Ron Burgundy."No they don't," she also wrote.Ingraham's evening at the dinner also drew attention because of who wasn't there. Reporters from CNN and MS Now were reportedly kept out of the event. A federal judge had ordered the administration earlier that week to restore the press credentials it pulled from those outlets and Politico.

President’s ‘hard, drastic and necessary measure’, likely to attract widespread public support, polls suggestThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has signed an order banning fixed-odds sports betting just over a week before the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.The decision ends the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting. Continue reading...

Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-fiancée has used her ambassadorship to promote one foreign firm while keeping its paid lobbyist at her side.Kimberly Guilfoyle, whom President Donald Trump named ambassador to Greece, has repeatedly pressed Balkan governments to work with Aktor Group, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Aktor is a Greek construction company that only recently moved into the natural gas business.Christos Marafatsos, who lobbies for the firm, has joined Guilfoyle at so many meetings that some foreign officials took him for her chief of staff. Federal lobbying records show Aktor paid Marafatsos $160,000 through June to build ties with the White House and the State and Energy departments. Several people who met with the pair, including government officials, told The Journal he never disclosed his work for the company.This spring, Guilfoyle arrived in Bulgaria on a private jet provided by Aktor's CEO and urged officials there to do business with the company."There is no doubt that this is kind of an official position of the U.S. government," a person familiar with the talks told The Journal.Robin Brooks, who oversaw the Balkans on the National Security Council under former President Joe Biden, called an ambassador promoting a foreign company "absolutely problematic." Bringing a registered lobbyist into meetings with foreign officials, she said, "calls into question whether the meeting is advancing American interests or advancing some sort of private interest."Guilfoyle's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, said she has "worked with companies across the energy sector" and that her official meetings are arranged through embassy channels rather than through Marafatsos. Lawyers for Aktor said the company's involvement began before it had any contact with the ambassador."I am proud to champion commercial initiatives that advance U.S. interests and create lasting economic opportunity in Greece and Southeastern Europe," Marafatsos said in a statement.Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Guilfoyle an "incredibly effective advocate for the President's agenda."

President Trump has turned down a proposed pause in fighting with Iran and confided to aides that he anticipates striking the country again once this fall's midterm elections have concluded, the Wall Street Journal reported.The rejected offer came out of weekend talks in Qatar, where Iranian representatives suggested a seven-day halt to hostilities that would have seen Tehran reopen a critical shipping waterway and resume nuclear discussions, contingent on Washington easing its economic squeeze on the country, including its naval presence blocking Iranian ports. Trump maintains publicly that Iran will ultimately have no choice but to accept a deal once the election passes, but sources say he harbors real doubts Tehran will cooperate and has already signaled to staff that renewed airstrikes feel like the more probable path forward.Just how extensive any future strikes might be is still uncertain. Sources describe a president torn between wanting to preserve limited weapons stockpiles for other potential flashpoints and a pattern of threatening dramatic military action whenever talks stall, threats he's historically walked back from at the last moment.Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly this week, Trump insisted electoral politics play no role in his Iran strategy."The Republican Party is running, and I'll be helping them, but I am not running. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence through the election when it comes to Iran," Trump said.Behind the scenes, talks are still ongoing through go-betweens, and one U.S. official credited a successful American operation keeping oil tankers moving safely through the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iranian threats, with easing some of the pressure to rush into an agreement. Washington has made clear to both Tehran and outside negotiators that ending the naval blockade isn't happening anytime soon, calculating that continued financial pain will eventually force Iran's hand on more favorable terms.Regional go-betweens say Iranian officials have conceded their economy is in serious trouble and put forward several possible frameworks to wind down the conflict.Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, effectively controlling the country since February, has pushed back on new arrangements, indicating a willingness to fight indefinitely and preferring instead to revive elements of an earlier framework from June, one built around sanctions relief, unfrozen funds, and some acknowledged Iranian involvement managing the strait once it reopened.