Summary

The Latest: Bessent warns the world to cut financial ties to Iran or face US retaliation Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that new U.S. secondary sanctions in the pipeline aim to block all potential sources of revenue for Iran, telling nations to cut economic ties to Tehran or face U.S. retaliation. Tehran has withstood nearly five decades of punishing American sanctions. Ahead of the announcement, Iran’s currency hit a record low, dropping to 2.02 million to the U.S. dollar as trading opened on currency markets. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, car parts and steel starting next year as the trade rift with Ottawa continued to deepen. The announcement comes after trade talks between the otherwise reliable trading partners collapsed last week. Long-planned U.S. tariffs on various Canadian goods went into effect after the talks broke off, and Canada has vowed to retaliate. The Latest: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he is not ruling out resuming strikes to hit Iran amid a lull in hostilities. “By no means are we foreclosing using kinetic strikes, anywhere, in the Strait of Hormuz or around Iran,” Hegseth told reporters Monday. It comes as the Treasury Department has announced a new round of sanctions aimed at Iran and warned nations that do business with the Islamic Republic to sever those financial ties or face retaliation from the United States. Hegseth said that “if Iran is foolish enough to overplay their hand or mess with the American military, we’ll do what we need to do” but he added that “economic pressure we know hurts them the most right now.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Pentagon will proceed with efforts to significantly boost production of advanced weapons, even if it Congress fails to approve President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget. Hegseth said the Pentagon has already inked multi-year deals with various contractors, with many scaling up manufacturing capacity. “This is not a nip around the margins of a few more weapons,” Hegseth told reporters in Wisconsin. “This is a generational investment of 2X, 3X, 4X war munitions of the ones we know we’re going to need and use.” U.S. military officials and Washington think tanks have raised concerns that the U.S. depleted many advanced weapons during the Iran war. But Hegseth pushed back, repeating the Pentagon’s stance that the U.S. military has plenty of munitions. The Treasury announced sanctions Monday against nearly 60 Iran-linked entities over their roles in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, malign cyber activities and oil shipments. It is part of the administration’s economic campaign against Iran, including warnings to other countries not to do business with Iran in sectors such as shipping, technology and aviation. The Treasury sanctioned Hong Kong-based Sweet Ocean Industrial Limited and its associated personnel and businesses, accusing them of helping Iran acquire sensitive goods such as laser optics equipment. The Treasury also sanctioned several other Hong Kong-based entities for having provided funds to Sweet Ocean and its network. Separately, the Treasury sanctioned China-based Shenzhen Huamei, the Hong Kong branch of the Iran-based logistics company BRE Line and its director for their ties with BRE Line in support of Iran’s missile and nuclear programs. A sanctioned company is cut off from the U.S. financial system. At the end of a Back to School event near the Rose Garden, the president invited the crowd — which included dozens of children — to accompany him and see the White House ballroom being built nearby. “If anybody would like to walk with me,” Trump said, calling it “a special way the kids could see construction.” The president added: “I love the sound of construction.” Trump has taken to calling the project a “ballroom slash military complex.” He noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting soon and recalled his own visit to China in May. “We saw the Great Hall of China,” Trump said. “Well, now we’re going to have a great hall, too, in the United States.” The president’s main public event Monday is a back-to-school event featuring Education Secretary Linda McMahon. Many schoolchildren are in the audience during the outdoor event. “What a nice setting this is,” Trump remarked. The Trump administration on Monday formally removed Syria from the State Department’s “State Sponsor of Terrorism” blacklist, making permanent a series of sanctions removals that had been initially announced more than a month ago. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced the recission of Syria from the list in early July, but there was a 45-day period for congressional review before it was formalized. That review period has now expired and sanctions related to the state sponsor designation have been almost completely removed, the State and Treasury departments said on Monday. “Treasury is following through on President Trump’s promise to give the Syrian people a chance at greatness,” Bessent said in a statement. “Today’s action will help foster additional investment in Syria to promote political and economic stability.” When asked that the U.S. could go soft on China to maintain the fragile trade truce between the world’s two largest economies, Bessent said “no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions” “If they facilitate transactions and are part of the ecosystem that turns Iranian oil into money, into repression, they will be targeted,” Bessent said. Experts have said the U.S. is likely to carefully calibrate its actions on China, just a month before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S. to keep the already-fraught relations from falling out. The Trump administration is challenged to act big with Iran “without escalating tensions with Beijing,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. Asked by a reporter Monday about issuing warnings to Tehran’s financial partners instead of promising an ‘economic D-Day’, the Treasury secretary said he wanted countries to shift away from Iran before it was too late. “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” Bessent said. “We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period.” He added, “But they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious. Secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool.” The treasury secretary said Trump has been “making phone calls to world leaders with specific request to cease their interactions” with Iran and has already seen results. The UAE announced last week that it was suspending all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran until further notice. “I am confident the president, as you all know, is quite persuasive,” Bessent said. Bessent said that Treasury and State Department officials are following up with calls and visits with officials from countries and entities it wants to see take action and laying out “exactly what we expect and the timelines.” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Monday said Iran’s trading partners were not taking Washington’s “statements into account,” even as the country’s economy reels from months of war and mounting pressure. “Americans know that no one buys their bombast,” Qalibaf said in a post on X, saying that the United States was “not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries.” His comments came as Washington prepared to expand secondary sanctions targeting countries and companies doing business with Iran, in an effort to isolate Tehran from the global dollar-based financial system. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says new U.S. secondary sanctions in the pipeline aim to block all potential sources of revenue for Iran, telling nations to cut economic ties to Tehran or face U.S. retaliation. Bessent added it’s “no longer acceptable to operate in the gray spaces” of Iran conflict as US threaten sanctions against Tehran’s trade partners. The treasury secretary did not name what countries could face potential secondary sanctions from the United States, but China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are Iran’s largest trade partners. “Let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States,” Bessent said at a Monday afternoon news conference. “An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power.” Asked about the Trump administration escalating a trade war with Canada when Maine depends so heavily on cross-border trade, the vice president said, “Canada is a state” but then added, “Sorry. Freudian slip.” As the crowd laughed and hooted, Vance added, “That was actually an accident.” He likened Canada to China in what he called unfair trade practices, saying that “Canada allows itself to be a backdoor for Chinese goods” that eventually are imported into the U.S. Vance said negotiations between Canada and the U.S. were ongoing and that he thought there’d have been an agreement easing trade disputes by now — but Canada had made “unreasonable” demands. Republican Sen. Susan Collins was not accompanying Vice President JD Vance during his manufacturing stop in Brewer, Maine on Monday. But he still made sure that her presence was felt. “Whenever I’m in Maine, I got to give Susan a little bit of crap,” Vance told the crowd as he began his remarks. “Because as you know, Susan is the most independent member of the United States Senate, and as the president of the United States Senate, she sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder.” Vance said Collins, who is up for reelection in the Democratic-leaning state, has visited the vice president’s residence about a half-dozen times. In those meetings, Vance said, Collins is constantly pressing him about how certain policies affect her state. Vance ended his brief aside on the senator by asking the crowd to give a shoutout to “our very independent friend, Susan Collins.” “After wrongfully firing me last year, an independent arbitrator has ordered the @washingtonpost to reinstate me immediately, with back pay,” Karen Attiah posted on Instagram on Monday, calling it “a victory for journalists everywhere.” The ruling found insufficient cause to terminate Karen Attiah, the last Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk at the time. Kirk, a top conservative podcaster and Trump ally, made provocative statements about race, gender and politics, including calling George Floyd, whose 2020 murder at the hands of Minneapolis police sparked protests, a “scumbag.” Kirk’s killing on Sept. 10 elicited a torrent of comments, and some who spoke out against him faced sanctions or dismissal at work. One post Attiah made said “Refusing to tear my clothes and smear ashes on my face in performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence is … not the same as violence.” A Post statement said it respects the arbitration process and declined further comment. Six people who were deported by the United States to Liberia last week resisted getting off the plane and instead were sent to Equatorial Guinea, a person on the plane and a lawyer in contact with them said Monday. Under a series of often secret agreements, the Trump administration has deported thousands of people to two dozen countries that aren’t their own as it pushes ahead with its immigration crackdown, advocates say. The four Cuban men, a Brazilian man and a Cameroonian woman are now being held with other migrants in worsening conditions in a hotel that lacks medical staff, said Meredyth Yoon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. Equatorial Guinea’s all-powerful president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, turned the hotel owned by his family into a prison for deported asylum seekers under an opaque $7.5 million deal with the Trump administration. His government did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. By Mark Banchereau The U.S. plans to reopen a border crossing in Arizona to cattle from Mexico on Monday as part of a broader Trump administration effort to reduce record-high beef prices. Economists doubt grocery store shoppers will see any savings soon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said concerns about the New World screwworm’s spread lessened enough to allow the movement of cattle from Mexico. Beef prices clearly are a concern for Trump, who announced Friday that he would allow up to 331,000 tons of ground beef imports, tariff-free, to be sold at below-market prices over the next 90 days. But the phased reopening means it will take months for Mexican imports to regain their traditional 3% of the U.S. supply, according to Derrell Peel, a professor of agribusiness at Oklahoma State University. The homeowner whose residence has been besieged by Israeli settlers said Monday that he still can’t move freely in the West Bank village of Qusra. Loui Ridi traveled from Ohio to the Israeli-occupied West Bank a week ago to join relatives defending his home from Israeli settlers. Israel’s military declared the area a closed zone to restore order in Qusra, made a nearby home into a drone base and required Palestinians to coordinate all their movements from the homes that had been under siege. Ridi said settlers keep returning to the area above his home, without consequences, while his family spends hours coordinating moves to get food, water and other supplies. Israel’s police has not announced any arrests of settlers, despite condemnation from Israeli rights groups and foreign officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who called the siege terrorism. “They will only exacerbate tensions and escalate the situation, which is in no one’s interest,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in Beijing as the U.S. threatens sanctions on countries that trade with Iran. China is calling on all parties to avoid measures “that could further intensify differences and conflicts and disrupt global economic development and financial stability,” he added. China is considered the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, and was importing more than 80% of Iranian oil before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. A crude oil tanker was attacked on Monday in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia, igniting a fire on its main deck, the British military said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said there were no reports of casualties. The tanker issued a distress alert and the Egyptian Navy was reported to have responded to conduct a rescue operation, according to Ambrey, a UK-based maritime risk and response company. The military spokesman with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said they targeted the tanker with a ballistic missile. “President Trump decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Sunday in an opinion piece in the Financial Times. “The regime’s final refuge now lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace.” Already last week, the United Arab Emirates announced that it was suspending all trade with Iran. The UAE has long been one of Iran’s largest trading partners and its biggest source of imports. But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that “any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences … Our hands are not tied.” Trump is commenting on Iran ahead of a Monday announcement about new and even stronger sanctions, including penalties against any countries that do business with the Islamic Republic. Trump posted on social media that “IRAN IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSING!!!” Still, economic pressure has not yet translated into political pressure to end the war. Iran retains a key strategic advantage: Its attacks and threats on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have nearly halted traffic in the vital waterway, damaging the world economy and heaping pressure on Trump ahead of congressional elections. Trump threatened Monday to impose a 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, car parts and steel starting next year as the trade rift with Ottawa deepens. Trade talks between the otherwise allies and reliable trading partners collapsed last week. Long-planned U.S. tariffs on various Canadian goods went into effect after the talks broke off, and Canada has vowed to retaliate. “Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” Trump posted on social media Monday morning. Criticizing Canada’s “ridiculously high tariffs” on American farmers, Trump wrote: “Not sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!” Doug Ford said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press that the late President Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up on” Trump over his trade policies. He also threatened to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States if the Canada-U.S. trade fight worsens. “I’ll cut them off,” Ford said of critical minerals. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.” Ford said “everything is on the table” after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade talks late Friday. Ford enraged Trump last year by using Reagan’s anti-tariff words in a television ad. The U.S. Southern Command announced the strike in a social media post early Monday, raising the death toll from boat bombings in Latin American waters to more than 210 people in more than 60 strikes. “We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” said Gen. Francis Donovan. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. is extending its offensive to targets on land across multiple Latin American countries. He said Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil. Guatemala denied this. Ecuador launched similar joint missions in March. Jamieson Greer says Canada ultimately wanted more than Washington was willing to offer. Greer said Monday during an interview on CNBC that Canada had maintained restrictions on U.S. wine, spirits, dairy and autos, prompting the U.S. to impose targeted tariffs covering about 5% of Canadian imports. He said there was significant progress in negotiations, with the U.S. offering to halve steel and aluminum tariffs and substantially reduce auto tariffs. He also dismissed concerns about a broader trade war. Joshua Aviles has worked 12-hour shifts for more than 250 days on the USS Lincoln while the aircraft carrier is deployed in the Middle East. One reason he enlisted was the “military parole-in-place” policy, which allows spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status while in the United States. His father Luis Manuel Aviles, a handyman in Key West, Florida, who came from Nicaragua 19 years ago, was arrested anyway on Saturday as the Trump administration withdraws immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda. Dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops have been detained, and at least six have been deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday.