- Monday August 31st, 2026
- "It Is Not A Question of Who Is Right Or Wrong But What Is Right Or Wrong That Counts."
- --Geoff Metcalf
- Providing an on line Triage of the news since 1998
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World & Nation
Trump: Iran 'Officially a Failed Nation'
President Donald Trump on Monday declared Iran "officially a Failed
Nation," saying the Islamic Republic is being propped up only by "FAKE
NEWS" from the U.S. media as its military, economy, and leadership
crumble.
"IRAN IS DEAD!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, pointing to what he
described as the destruction of Tehran's naval and air forces, the
collapse of its currency, and soaring inflation.
"They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they
are not paying their soldiers or police, Inflation is at 300%, and
their leadership is in total disarray and incapable of properly
representing the country," Trump wrote.
Trump also accused Tehran of killing more than 100,000 protesters and
called for Iranian leaders to face prosecution for "war crimes against
humanity."
Trump Vows to Hit Back 'Hard' After First Exchange of Fire With Iran in Weeks
President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran "hard" after the two foes traded fire for the first time in over a month.
Late Sunday, the United States carried out strikes on an Iranian island
in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran quickly retaliating by launching
attacks on U.S. military targets in the Middle East that were
intercepted.
The exchange raised fears of a return to major hostilities, with the U.S. president vowing to respond.
Putin unleashes new fury on Ukraine as report exposes fear hanging over war’s end
Retired Air Force Lt Gen Richard Newton said military momentum has shifted toward Ukraine despite critical gaps
Questions over whether the Russia-Ukraine war is entering a new phase
are mounting as Kyiv endures repeated drone attacks and near-constant
air raid alerts, including growing waves during daylight hours — an
expansion beyond the nighttime barrages that have become grimly
familiar to residents of the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched nearly
1,500 drones over four days, more than half of them jet-powered,
accusing Moscow of attempting to wear down Ukraine and its population.
The attacks have repeatedly interrupted Kyiv’s metro system and daily
commutes, Reuters reported Aug. 31, as residents are forced to seek
shelter during daytime air raid alerts.
As Ukrainians seek some semblance of normalcy at the end of the summer
and prepare for the start of the school year, the relentless attacks
are again sending already exhausted Kyiv residents underground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has simultaneously intensified attacks
on Ukraine’s warehouses and logistics network, damaging distribution
centers used by major retailers and disrupting food deliveries.
VP Vance says Trump’s social-media posts are warning Iran of ‘consequences’
Vice President JD Vance said Monday that President Donald Trump’s
recent social-media posts are meant to send a message to Iran over its
alleged attacks on commercial shipping.
“The president likes to switch it up on social media a little bit,”
Vance told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, adding that
Trump “would be the first to say he doesn’t make announcements about
military actions on social media.”
Vance said the U.S. has “a lot of tools at our disposal” to prevent or
reduce Iranian attacks on commercial vessels, and described Trump’s
message as a warning to Tehran.
Smiling Scott Bessent arrives at G20 finance meeting with vow to make Iran ‘come to their senses’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was grinning from ear to ear as he
arrived at a Group of 20 finance ministers reception Sunday with the
hope of marshaling global support for his “Operation Economic Outcast”
campaign against Iran.
Bessent was accompanied by Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh and was
later seen walking with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon outside the G20
Finance Track reception in Asheville, NC.
The treasury secretary spent most of last week previewing a series of
measures meant to isolate the Islamic Republic from global markets by
punishing countries and financial institutions still doing business
with Tehran.
“I think it could be within weeks or months,” Bessent told reporters on
Monday when asked about how long “Operation Economic Outcast” will last.
Trump admin shuts down 270 driving schools in fraud crackdown
The administration shut down hundreds of driving schools for granting licenses to illegal immigrants
President Donald Trump's administration announced a "historic"
crackdown on trucking fraud during a news conference in Detroit on
Monday.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the move alongside
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, saying tens of thousands
of illegal drivers' licenses were issued during former President Joe
Biden's administration.
Duffy noted that millions of illegal immigrants were allowed into the
country under Biden and many were granted commercial drivers' licenses,
with many of them not even able to speak English.
The administration is shutting down 110 driving schools that were the
"greatest offenders" in granting drivers' licenses to illegal
immigrants, as well as 160 additional schools that Duffy says lacked
proper space for driving tests or had unlicensed instructors.
New federal grand jury subpoena issued to former James Comey advisor in leak investigation: sources
The DOJ has subpoenaed Daniel Richman, a longtime friend and former adviser of James Comey
A federal grand jury issued a subpoena to former FBI Director James
Comey's longtime friend and advisor on Monday as part of a new
investigation into Comey allegedly leaking classified information to
the media.
The subpoena targets former Comey adviser Daniel Richman and indicates
that the Justice Department has launched a fresh investigation into the
leak of classified information to the New York Times. The issue was
also investigated under President Donald Trump's first term, but was
cut off when former President Joe Biden entered office.
The new investigation is in addition to the one centered on Comey's alleged threats against Trump.
Election whistleblower warns foreign actors are spending billions to turn Americans against AI
Brittany Kaiser says state restrictions may force companies to process information in countries lacking US protections
America's rivals stand to gain from a growing backlash against the data
centers powering the nation's AI boom and foreign money is helping fuel
it, Brittany Kaiser warned.
Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica employee and election
whistleblower, told Fox News Digital the opposition looked strikingly
similar to political influence efforts she encountered in her previous
work.
"As a former whistleblower on elections' intervention, the uproar of
discontent around American AI data centers looked very familiar to
political interventions that I have seen in the past," Kaiser told Fox
News Digital.
El-Sayed’s Hasan Piker problem follows him to Dem convention as Jewish voters break ranks
The Senate candidate wouldn't condemn the controversial socialist streamer, who he says is irrelevant in Michigan
Socialist-adjacent Michigan U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed
addressed the media during Saturday's state Democratic Party Nominating
Convention, where he was dogged by many of the same questions that have
plagued his campaign for months.
Surrounded by media in a hallway at the Lansing Center, where the
convention took place, El-Sayed was peppered with questions from the
press about his relationship with far-left online personality Hasan
Piker, along with his stance on Israel and Gaza, which has driven a
wedge between his campaign and some Democrats, especially Jewish ones.
El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel who describes their military actions
against Hamas in Gaza as "genocide," is facing off against former Rep.
Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in the Great Lakes battleground
state, for a crucial open Senate seat the Democrats must hold in the
midterm elections.
Trump: Data Centers Are Boon to Communities
President Donald Trump on Monday urged communities to embrace data
centers, warning that opposition to the facilities will cost Americans
jobs, tax revenue and economic growth while benefiting China.
"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want
Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump
wrote on Truth Social.
"If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs
all over the place, let Data Reign," he added. "If we kill the Golden
Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame."
Trump said communities unwilling to host the massive facilities could
lose the investment to other parts of the country and argued that
Beijing stands to gain from efforts to slow America's artificial
intelligence infrastructure buildout.
Lionel Messi retires from Argentina national team after his father’s death
Lionel Messi’s final game in an Argentina shirt was this year’s World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium.
The soccer legend, 39, announced on Monday that he is retiring from the
national team after Argentina lost to Spain in the final, four years
after he led his country to a World Cup title. He noted in his
Instagram post, which featured a photo of a handwritten message across
three pieces of notebook paper, that he wrote those words on July 21,
two days after Argentina’s loss to Spain.
Messi’s decision comes more than three weeks after his father, Jorge, died at 68 following a battle with an illness.
GOP trailing in 8 battleground Senate races 2 months before Election Day: polling aggregate
Republicans are trailing in eight of the major battleground Senate
races, just two months out from Election Day, the RealClearPolitics
aggregate of polling shows.
The GOP had long been widely seen as the underdogs for control of the
House due to historical trends against the party in control of the
White House, but the Senate map is starting to look increasingly
fraught, even in once reliably red states such as Texas and Ohio.
“It points out the obvious that Republicans are in pretty bad shape
going into the midterms and that they’re looking at historic losses,”
Republican strategist Terry Holt bluntly told The Post about the bleak
polling.
Republicans are down 2 points in Alaska, 7.5 points in Georgia, 2.3
points in Maine, 1.8 points in Michigan, 2.6 points in Ohio, 2 points
in New Hampshire, 8 points in North Carolina, and 1.9 points in Texas,
according to the latest RCP polling aggregate data of the Senate races.
My family fled the ‘butchers’ in Iran 50 years ago. We can’t give them what they want
The regime manufactures 10,000 drones a month and is moving assets underground
By Shirin Yadegar
On Tuesday, Aug. 25, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S.
Navy has removed or detonated every Iranian mine in the international
waters of the Strait of Hormuz. Tankers are moving again, gas prices
should finally start to ease and Washington will be tempted to exhale.
That would be a mistake. It took the most powerful navy on Earth six
months to undo Tehran’s damage to the strait. The 60-day negotiating
window produced nothing; Iran's foreign ministry said the deadline
"essentially has no relevance," and the regime that just lost this
round is already winding the next clock.
I know that clock. My family lived under it before we fled Iran, a
Jewish family that watched the revolution turn our homeland into a
place where we could no longer safely exist.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the rest of the regime leadership
are not trying to beat the American military; they are trying to
outlast the American taxpayer, and the regime is banking its survival
on exactly that.
A year after Operation Midnight Hammer and the 12-Day War showed the
world what American power can do in a matter of days, the American
public’s worst fear is materializing anyway: a drawn-out conflict. The
strait may be reopening, but the squeeze of the past six months reached
pocketbooks nationwide, midterm elections are approaching and
Washington is debating how, and how fast, to prosecute this war.
Letitia James’ abuses of power laid bare as top prosecutor blows the whistle
By New York Post Editorial Board
A prosecutor in New York Attorney General Letitia James' office claimed
that he was ordered to dig up dirt on President Trump and his allies.
New York Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld may be
Whistleblower of the Year: He just called out Attorney General Tish
James’ horrific abuses of power in burning “significant public taxpayer
dollars to target convenient public enemies,” not least President
Donald Trump, with no cause.
The office should focus on prosecuting “rampant nonprofit homeless
shelter fraud and antisemitic crimes in and around synagogues,” he
thundered in a weekend email blasted to 2,000 staff in the state AG’s
office.
His first-hand knowledge doesn’t directly implicate James: He alleges
only that his direct superior, Investor Protection Bureau Chief Shamiso
Maswoswe, told him to target “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett
Packard (DOJ approved merger)” without bothering to first find “a
credible reason for targeting the organizations and individuals.”
But he (understandably) believes Maswoswe was following orders from
James, who after all ran for the office vowing to target Trump.
