8 hours ago
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Trump says Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures but doesn't offer details
Donald Trump has said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures after he ordered the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why Kim had not responded to his overtures. Trump shot back at the reporter: “How do you know he hasn’t responded?” The reporter then asked again if he had.
“Um, yeah he has,” Trump said. Asked what stage the conversations with Kim were at, Trump said “it’s very positive”, but provided no further detail. He added:
Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect and we met on numerous occasions, actually two primary occasions, spoken and spent time. I understand him. He understands me.
Their relationship was a dominant theme during Trump’s first term, including a series of meetings between them, but has received less emphasis in his second term.
Key events
The day so far
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Donald Trump again threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” of his effort to end the US-Israel war on Iran, as the two-month window to negotiate peace with Iran expired on Monday with no end to the conflict in sight. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News, the second time he has directed such a threat at Muscat, a longtime US strategic partner that has traditionally served as a key backchannel between Washington and Tehran.
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Trump said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had responded to his overtures after he ordered the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why Kim had not responded to his overtures. Trump shot back at the reporter: “How do you know he hasn’t responded?” The reporter then asked again if he had. “Um, yeah he has,” Trump said. Asked what stage the conversations with Kim were at, Trump said “it’s very positive”, but provided no further detail.
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Trump also claimed he had third-hand reports that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is “beautifully maintained” despite extensive accounts of deteriorating living conditions during its lengthy deployment in the strait of Hormuz. “The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time – a good period of time – but over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer,” Trump said, describing an exchange with a veteran, whom he did not name, over the weekend. It has been more than 250 days since the Lincoln has touched land, and reports have described shortages of supplies and water and plumbing problems. Several sailors have attempted to leap from the ship according to their reports, prompting Democratic lawmakers to demand answers from the Pentagon.
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In Israel, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Benjamin Netanyahu for more than four hours after the Israeli prime minister rejected a US-backed peace plan for the Gaza war that included a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the devastated territory. Netanyahu has said he rejected any withdrawal that would take place before Hamas fully disarms. Kushner was said to have told Netanyahu not to create obstacles to a peace deal, US officials told media outlets. He also told Fox News that progress in getting Hamas to give up its weapons and move forward with a Gaza peace plan could materialize in about a month.
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Elsewhere, the US supreme court rejected for a second time Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury verdict in 2023 that found him liable for sexually abusing writer E Jean Carroll, and later defaming her. The court announced the decision in an unsigned order, without providing an explanation. The decision leaves intact the $5m civil judgment against Trump, that was returned by the jury after the two-week trial in 2023.
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The House ethics committee announced that it is investigating Democratic representative Jimmy Gomez over allegations of sexual misconduct. The committee said in a statement that it is reviewing allegations that Gomez “engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”
Trump dismisses USS Lincoln criticism and snaps at CNN reporter to ‘be quiet’
George Chidi
Further to my earlier post, my colleague George Chidi has this report on Donald Trump'’s claims today that he had third-hand reports that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is “beautifully maintained” despite extensive accounts of deteriorating living conditions during its record-breaking deployment in the strait of Hormuz.
At the White House earlier, Trump berated a CNN reporter at a press availability, insisting that she “be quiet” and describing the reporting as fake news.
“The Lincoln has been out there for a period of time – a good period of time – but over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer,” Trump said, describing an exchange with a veteran, whom he did not name, over the weekend.
“He happened to be an admiral, retired. He said, ‘I’ve been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it’s beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.’ And other people went out and they found out that to be true,” said Trump. “It was fake news reporting from CNN.”
Trump also didn’t identify the “other people” he claimed had verified the anonymous admiral’s account.
The Lincoln, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier capable of long deployments without refueling, left port from San Diego on 21 November 2025 and has now set a modern record for the longest time at sea without a port call. It has been more than 250 days since it has touched land.
The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes – the latter notably under increased control of the Pentagon as a defense publication – have also largely confirmed reports of the Lincoln’s conditions.
The publications described shortages of supplies and water and plumbing problems. Several sailors have attempted to leap from the ship according to their reports, prompting Democratic lawmakers to demand answers from the Pentagon.
Naval families with loved ones deployed for months on US warships amid the Iran war have reacted with fury to Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s dismissal of their concerns about the extreme pressures and dire conditions they are enduring.
The Guardian also spoke to three naval families who have been following the physical and mental stresses bearing down on their relatives with mounting alarm.
“I grew up in a United States where you have to be very respectful of the military, as they’re making the ultimate sacrifice and protecting their country, and now you have the commander-in-chief and defense secretary dismissing their experiences and calling them liars,” said the sister of one Lincoln crew member, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution. “I’m really angry.”
Kushner predicts Hamas disarmament progress in 'as little as 30 days'
More now from Jared Kushner’s interview with Fox News in Tel Aviv, where Donald Trump’s special envoy and son-in-law said that progress in getting Hamas to give up its weapons and move forward with a Gaza peace plan could materialize in about a month.
“We could be seeing progress ... in as little as 30 days, hopefully starting to take some of the weapons out,” Kushner said.
He said he met for nearly four hours with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reassured him on several sticking points. “There were some valid concerns” on the Israeli side, Kushner said.
For example, he said, the Trump administration is committed to helping to rebuild Gaza. “But we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarization occurs. Nobody wants to put more money into a place ... if it’s just going to be taken over by terrorists,” he said.
“We’re also not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats and so we had to clarify what that means,” Kushner said. “For Israel we think it’s a win-win situation.”
Either Hamas will go ahead in disarming “willingly over the next 60 to 90 days” or “Israel will have a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way,” Kushner added.
He said he had had a “very cordial” meeting with Hamas officials, but added that “it’s very, very hard to trust a terrorist organization.”
Cecilia Nowell
Construction on a US-Mexico border project in Big Bend national park has halted, the Trump administration said today, as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) evaluates the controversial project in Texas.
“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” CBP’s head, Rodney Scott, wrote in a social media post.
Footage of bulldozers ploughing through the 800,000-acre (325,000-hectare) Chihuahuan desert national park emerged earlier this month, after the Trump administration did not announce and initially denied construction on a multibillion-dollar “smart wall” expansion in the park.
Last year, Congress approved $46.5bn for a border wall expansion in the “big, beautiful” spending bill Donald Trump signed into law on 4 July 2025.
Although many Texas Republicans have remained silent about the construction, outgoing senator John Cornyn sent a letter to Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s homeland security secretary, asking him to halt construction on the wall.
“My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own sources of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States,” Cornyn wrote.
Scott, the CBP chief, has said that he expects the agency will build the first layer of the wall by the end of next year.
Trump approval falls to 33%, lowest of his presidency, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned the war with Iran will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded today.
Just 33% of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 64% disapproved.
Trump’s approval rating, down from 35% in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower than at any point in his current term, has now tied the lowest level of his prior term reached in December 2017.
After returning to the White House last year with just under half the country approving of his presidency, Trump’s popularity this year took a hit after he ordered strikes on Iran alongside Israel.
The ensuing conflict paralyzed a fifth of the global oil trade, triggering a surge in the price of gasoline which is weighing on US households - and on Trump’s Republican allies defending congressional majorities in November’s crucial midterm elections.
Trump, who campaigned on promises to keep inflation in check and avoid long-lasting wars, initially pledged the conflict with Iran would take a few weeks, and argued the war was the only way to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon that could threaten the US and its allies.
But Iran has proved resilient and has choked the oil trade through the strait of Hormuz even as the conflict has cooled. Some 80% of Americans - including 87% of Democrats and 71% of Republicans - think US involvement in Iran “will go on for an extended period of time”, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Texas parents ask US supreme court to hear Ten Commandments in classrooms case
A group of Texas parents have asked the US supreme court to block a state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups joined the parents of diverse faiths with children in Texas public schools in asking the high court to hear the case.
“The US Supreme Court has rejected this kind of government-imposed religion before, and it should do so again,” Chloe Kempf, an attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.
“Our nation’s bedrock principle of separating church and state means that families and faith communities – not politicians – get to decide what role religion plays in children’s lives,” she said.
In a similar case in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in schools in Kentucky was unconstitutional.
However in April, a conservative-dominated appeals court ruled in favor of the Texas law, which requires the scripture to be posted in every classroom.
The judges ruled that the bill did not violate the establishment clause of the US Constitution, the part of the first amendment that prohibits the government from establishing a national religion or showing preference to one over another.
Conservatives enjoy a 6-3 majority on the supreme court and the justices have sided with religious rights claims in a number of recent high-profile cases.
Along with Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama have all passed laws requiring the posters of the commandments in public schools. South Carolina, West Virginia and Missouri are also considering similar bills.
A reminder that the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran expired today. Further to Donald Trump’s comments in the Oval Office earlier that Tehran was “not going to make the kind of deal I feel is necessary”, his special envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner has been speaking to Fox News.
“Right now, they’re not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us,” Kushner said of Iran.
Asked what he felt the biggest roadblock to reaching an agreement, Kushner said, “They have to be willing to make a real deal.” He added:
If they’re going to play a trick or do something to hide certain cards and get certain concessions … Trump wants to make a fair deal that could be a win-win … but they have to want to be a real country, which means no nuclear weapons and no funding terror in the region.
House ethics committee investigating Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations
The House ethics committee has announced that it is investigating Democratic representative Jimmy Gomez over allegations of sexual misconduct.
The committee said in a statement that it is reviewing allegations that Gomez “engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”
It added that that existence of an investigation and public disclosure of the investigation “does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred”.
CNN reported back in June that the panel was investigating 51-year-old Gomez, of California, including over an alleged romantic relationship he had in 2023 with an aide who worked for another member of Congress. He’s been married since 2011.
According to CNN’s sources, the committee made early contacts in an attempt to follow up on a New York Post story, which alleged that Gomez had been spotted kissing a much younger aide, who worked for another member of Congress, outside a backyard party in 2023. A Gomez spokesperson told The Post at the time that the accounts were “not true” and the kiss “didn’t happen”.
While reaching out to look into that story, one of the sources told CNN that the committee had learned of other allegations of sexual misconduct against Gomez that it is now also investigating.
House rules don’t currently prohibit members of Congress from having relationships with staffers outside their own offices, but the bipartisan sexual misconduct task force is weighing whether to recommend changing this.
It comes not long after two other representatives, Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales, recently resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct with staffers.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that an unnamed former staffer had accused Swalwell, of California, of sexually assaulting her on two occasions. CNN later published a similar account, as well as allegations from three other women of him sending them unwanted sexual messages.
In the case of Gonzales, of Texas, he weathered for weeks calls to resign after admitting to an affair with an aide who later died by suicide, before eventually caving to pressure to not run for re-election.
Republican Chuck Edwards also recently dropped his bid for re-election after the committee determined that he “fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” by giving gifts and lavishing attention on two young female staffers.
The committee has also opened an investigation into Republican Cory Mills regarding campaign financial misconduct and domestic abuse allegations.
Trump then moved on to answering another reporter’s question, claiming that it was “a CNN fake report” that there isn’t enough food on the USS Abraham Lincoln, which hasn’t seen port in nine months.
“The Lincoln has been out there for a good period of time,” he said, claiming that it’s been out at sea for longer periods of time and is “beautifully maintained”. This echoes comments he made last Friday that the deployment was “not nearly long enough”.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns from military families and members of Congress who have called attention to the intensifying mental health crisis and poor conditions for those onboard the aircraft carrier, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to Trump’s war with Iran.
The president also had an astonishing exchange with a CNN reporter, telling her multiple times to “BE QUIET” and accusing her of being “a fake reporter”.
She tried several times to ask her question, while Trump talked over and insulted her:
You’re fake news. You’re a loud, boisterous person, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, you’re a fake reporter and you report fake news.
Trump has an ugly history of speaking to female reporters in this way.
Trump also claimed he was “actually making it much safer” for South Korea by scaling back joint military drills just days after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles.
He said again that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had always “treated me with great respect” and that they understand each other.
I get along with him very well. Now, what I’m doing is making things safer.
Asked if the US was any closer to a deal with Iran to end its nuclear programme, Trump told reporters:
They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of deal that I feel is necessary.
The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on 17 June but the two-month window for a negotiated settlement closed today without a breakthrough.
Trump says Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures but doesn't offer details
Donald Trump has said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded to his overtures after he ordered the US to scale back military exercises with South Korea.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked why Kim had not responded to his overtures. Trump shot back at the reporter: “How do you know he hasn’t responded?” The reporter then asked again if he had.
“Um, yeah he has,” Trump said. Asked what stage the conversations with Kim were at, Trump said “it’s very positive”, but provided no further detail. He added:
Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect and we met on numerous occasions, actually two primary occasions, spoken and spent time. I understand him. He understands me.
Their relationship was a dominant theme during Trump’s first term, including a series of meetings between them, but has received less emphasis in his second term.
Donald Trump is currently speaking to the press in the Oval Office as he meets Ryder Williams, a teenage lifeguard who saved a 10-year-old boy from pounding waves off the California coast last month.
Trump previously said on social media that he would be inviting Williams to the White House to reward his bravery. The child Williams saved, Nathanial Rai, and his father are also at the meeting.
Dramatic video of the rescue went viral last month. It showed Williams clinging to Rai as waves repeatedly crashed over them. The pair disappeared from view and re-emerged after several seconds as the wave receded.
A second lifeguard was eventually able to help get them both back to shore at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz.
Williams’s father, Shane Williams, who is also at the Oval Office meeting today, told the Guardian at the time: “I almost started crying because how determined he was to save that boy’s life makes me so proud.”
Trump initially commented on the video in response to a post from his son, Eric Trump, who said Williams deserved “the highest civilian honor”.
Trump blames 'vandals' for damaged grass in the spot where he held his big July 4 celebration
Donald Trump has blamed “vandals” for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the very spot where he had a stage built and hosted crowds for his 4 July celebration.
Trump made the accusation in a social media post yesterday without saying why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. He posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.
“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!”
Trump has repeatedly blamed “vandals” for damage to his renovation projects in the nation’s capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials.
Trump lashed out at US attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals.
Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial , after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges were being brought against Melissa L Farris, who was in custody and couldn’t be reached for comment by the Associated Press.
A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell on Thursday posted a video in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument. “I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me. I’m doing it. It’s on camera.”
The woman was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L Farris, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, an arrest warrant cited by the AP says.
Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had previously been arrested for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.
That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a 4 July event celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.
Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.
On 1 August, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” – which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump, the 47th president – emblazoned into the grass.
He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro’s conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass.” Trump wrote: “There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”
Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted yesterday.
Gaya Gupta
US gas prices this month are so far the highest ever recorded for August as peace talks between the US and Iran have stalled and Donald Trump launched fresh threats against Oman.
The national average price of gas was $4.06 per gallon on Monday, according to data from AAA, $0.05 higher than last week and $1 more expensive than a year ago. In California and Hawaii, averages hit about $5.50 a gallon.
Energy prices have been high since the US-Israel war with Iran began at the end of February and the strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which a fifth of the oil passes, was blocked.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, reached $112 a barrel in March, a high not seen since 2022. While prices have since come down closer to $85 a barrel, they are still about 30% higher than a year ago.
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Monday announced changes to the process for restoring federal gun possession rights to those who lost them as a consequence of criminal convictions.
“Restoration of firearm rights is neither automatic nor guaranteed,” Blanche said in a published statement on X.
Under the new rules, each applicant must prove to the attorney general’s satisfaction that their record, reputation and conduct since the prohibition show they are not likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety; and that granting relief is not contrary to the public interest.
Violent felons, registered sex offenders, undocumented immigrants, fugitives, habitual drug users and people under domestic-violence restraining orders are presumed ineligible for gun rights restoration.
Previously, the restoration of federal gun rights effectively required a presidential pardon. The DoJ is launching a web-based portal for applications.
Tom Ambrose
Benjamin Netanyahu and US envoy Jared Kushner discussed putting an American general in charge of verifying Hamas’s disarmament earlier today, an Israeli official said, as the Israeli prime minister insisted there would be no pullout from Gaza until then.
Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, flew to the region after Netanyahu, facing a tough re-election fight, publicly rejected the latest part of a US plan aimed at ending Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
Kushner, who has long family ties to Netanyahu, met with him in Jerusalem a day after holding rare direct talks in Egypt with Hamas, which has publicly committed itself to the plan and to disarmament, winning praise from Trump but prompting deep scepticism in Israel.
The two sides “agreed that no redeployment or reconstruction would take place in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed throughout Gaza”, a senior Israeli official told AFP.
Supreme court rejects Trump's bid to overturn E Jean Carroll verdict for second time
The US supreme court has rejected Donald Trump’s latest attempt to overturn a jury judgment that found him liable for sexually abusing and then defaming writer E Jean Carroll.
The high court did not give any reason for its decision not to rehear the president’s challenge. In late June it also refused to hear his appeal against the original May 2023 verdict, leaving intact the $5m that Carroll was awarded in damages.
Carroll, 82, a former journalist and columnist, accused Trump of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan in 1996.
When the allegations were published in an excerpt from her 2019 memoir, Trump called Carroll a “nut job” and accused her of lying.
Trump paid $5.6m in damages and post-judgement interest to Carroll last month after a civil jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
In a separate defamation case in New York, Trump was ordered to pay $83.3m to her. Trump has also appealed that judgment to the supreme court.
