标签： North America

A solemn, formal dignified transfer ceremony was held on U.S. soil at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor the remains of four American service members who recently lost their lives while serving in the Middle East. Former President Donald Trump was in attendance at the event, which adheres to longstanding U.S. military traditions for honoring fallen service members killed overseas. The four fallen troops being honored at the ceremony were identified as Tyler James Feehan, Angel Rampersad, Isabella Gonzales, and Michael Emmanuel Swinton. Dignified transfer ceremonies are a core military custom designed to pay solemn respect to military personnel who die while deployed abroad, marking their formal return to American soil with full honor and ceremony. The presence of the sitting president at the event underscores the U.S. government’s recognition of the sacrifice made by the four service members and their commitment to honoring the lives lost in the line of duty.

A weeks-long political firestorm over a potential visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to New York City took a new turn this week, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani acknowledged he lacks the independent legal authority to carry out his earlier campaign pledge to arrest Netanyahu if he steps foot in the five boroughs.

Mamdani, who built a portion of his mayoral campaign around sharp criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and repeatedly labeled Netanyahu a war criminal, first signaled he was moving forward with exploring arrest options in an interview with The New York Times over the weekend. In that conversation, he claimed his administration was holding “active conversations” with local law enforcement to assess how to enforce the 2024 International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

But just two days later, Mamdani released a video statement posted to social media walking back that plan, confirming a full legal review of all available pathways found the city government holds no independent power to execute the international warrant. “We do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this,” Mamdani said in the video, adding that “the federal government, however, does.” He went on to call on Washington to join the ICC and move forward with executing the warrant, adding that Netanyahu remains “not welcome” in New York City, where the Israeli prime minister is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly this September.

The ICC, a permanent international court based in The Hague that prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 alongside a warrant for a senior Hamas commander. Legally, any nation that is a member of the ICC is required to detain and transfer any individual subject to an ICC warrant if they enter their territory — but the United States has never joined the court, creating a major legal barrier to enforcement at any level of U.S. government.

Former President Donald Trump, who has long positioned himself as a staunch ally of Netanyahu, quickly weighed in on the controversy earlier this week. In a post to his Truth Social platform on Monday, Trump stated that Netanyahu would not be “arrested, in any way, shape or form” while he is in the U.S. He defended the Israeli prime Minister by arguing that he is fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Trump falsely claimed recently killed 52,000 innocent protestors and has killed thousands of American troops over the past 47 years.

The dispute comes as polling shows a clear shift in Democratic Party voter attitudes toward U.S. policy on Israel. A recent survey finds that 58% of Democratic voters now believe the U.S. is overly supportive of Israel, up from just 45% in 2024, a change that has helped push progressive elected officials like Mamdani to take more public critical stances on the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.

Israeli officials have pushed back harshly against Mamdani’s comments. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, accused the New York mayor of advancing partisan political messaging aligned with Hamas. “You were elected to serve New Yorkers, not Hamas’ propaganda,” Danon said in response to Mamdani’s initial interview comments.

In a move set to reshape nuclear dynamics across the Middle East, the Trump administration is preparing to announce a landmark 30-year civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia as early as Wednesday, multiple U.S. media outlets have reported.

The framework of the deal, which has already secured presidential approval, would allow the Gulf kingdom to pursue domestic uranium enrichment after completing a joint feasibility study with U.S. partners. Unlike the 2009 U.S.-United Arab Emirates nuclear agreement that imposed strict bans on local enrichment and other key limitations, this new arrangement leaves the door open for Saudi Arabia to produce its own nuclear fuel for civilian energy production at a U.S.-built facility, ending its reliance on imported fuel.

Industry analysts project the deal could generate billions of dollars in revenue for U.S. nuclear firms, which would lead construction and operation of the enrichment facility. While the agreement is framed as supporting civilian energy development, it has already sparked sharp criticism and concern from multiple quarters.

Notably, the deal does not require Saudi Arabia to extend formal diplomatic recognition and normalize relations with Israel, a long-held foreign policy priority for every consecutive U.S. administration. Israeli nuclear experts and former government officials, representing Washington’s closest Middle Eastern ally, have warned that the framework could eventually put Saudi Arabia in a position to develop nuclear weapons. This warning echoes longstanding tensions around nuclear proliferation in the region, where the U.S. and Israel have cited preventing Iranian nuclear weapons development as a core national security goal – a claim Iran has repeatedly denied.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman addressed the kingdom’s nuclear posture publicly in 2018, telling CBS News that Riyadh had no plans to pursue a nuclear weapon, but would “follow suit as soon as possible” if Iran successfully developed a nuclear device.

The terms of the agreement include a 10-year restriction: if Washington rejects the results of the joint enrichment study, Saudi Arabia will be barred from pursuing domestic enrichment independently or with third-party partners for a decade. Even with this safeguard, global nuclear non-proliferation advocacy groups are already preparing to oppose the deal, as their core mission centers on halting the spread of nuclear weapons technology worldwide.

Following Wednesday’s expected announcement, the agreement will be sent to the U.S. Congress for review. Bipartisan opposition is expected among lawmakers, though Republicans retain control of both the House of Representatives and Senate, improving the deal’s odds of advancing. The White House has not yet issued an official comment on the reports, when contacted by the BBC.

During a tense Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing held on Capitol Hill Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a staggering new accounting of the financial costs of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran, revealing that expenditures to date have reached $37.5 billion. Contrary to assumptions that the figure would only cover destroyed or depleted military hardware, Hegseth clarified the total includes all operational expenses, from frontline troop provisions to logistics and support costs. The hearing was convened specifically to review two major administration defense funding requests: a $67 billion emergency supplemental war budget and a $1.5 trillion baseline military spending package for the 2027 fiscal year. Hegseth framed the additional war funding as an urgent, non-negotiable requirement for U.S. military operations, warning that failure to approve the request would leave the force facing catastrophic resource gaps. “Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” Hegseth testified under committee questioning. The disclosure immediately sparked fierce pushback from Democratic lawmakers, who have grown increasingly critical of what they call an unaccountable, escalating war of choice that lacks congressional authorization. Senate Majority Whip Patty Murray issued a stark warning that the conflict is on track to become another open-ended “forever war” that drains U.S. resources without a clear strategic goal. “This war is now spiraling out of control again,” Murray said, pointing out the contradiction between the Trump administration’s repeated claims that a peace deal is imminent and its request for tens of billions of additional war funding. “US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that ‘a deal is near, and the war will be over soon.’ But now, he’s asking for $70 billion more — and for us to just trust him it’ll all work out fine.” The sharp exchange comes as the Trump administration continues to ramp up military pressure on Iran, even as it gestures toward potential ceasefire negotiations. President Trump told reporters at the White House Tuesday that Iran is “desperately” seeking talks to end the conflict, even as U.S. forces continue daily offensive strikes across Iranian territory with no signs of de-escalation. “We’re not finished,” Trump said, dismissing any talk of a premature U.S. withdrawal. “We’re not leaving.” The president also confirmed that the U.S. military is preparing a potential major strike on Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified underground facility that U.S. intelligence claims Iran has repurposed to house centrifuge equipment for nuclear fuel production and its stockpiles of enriched uranium. In a move that drew significant scrutiny, Trump attempted to frame the U.S. casualty toll from the Iran war as remarkably low compared to past U.S. military conflicts. He noted that 17 U.S. service members have been killed in the Iran campaign to date, contrasting that figure with zero U.S. troop deaths during the 2025 operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from power. For context, he cited higher death tolls from prior conflicts: roughly 2,000 deaths in Afghanistan, 4,600 in Iraq, 58,220 in Vietnam, and 36,574 in the Korean War. But the administration’s casualty accounting has faced widespread skepticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum, who accuse the White House and Pentagon of withholding full casualty data under the vague guise of protecting operational security. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that the collapse of a tentative ceasefire earlier this year, paired with the ongoing escalation of fighting, has left U.S. troops bearing the brunt of a conflict that the American public is not being fully informed about. “The ceasefire collapsed. The war is escalating. American troops are paying the price. Iran knew it attacked our bases. The Pentagon knew our troops were wounded. The only people kept in the dark were the American people,” Schumer said. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine went further, emphasizing that Congress has already formally taken the position that the Trump administration’s war is illegal under the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress — not the executive branch — the sole power to declare war. Kaine pointed out that this position was endorsed by both houses of Congress, which at the time of the vote held Republican majority leadership, yet the president has ignored the congressional resolution. “You better have a really good answer for that question. And as of right now, this war of choice that Donald Trump started, he cannot answer that question. Congress has definitively declared — both houses — that this war is illegal. Only we, in the Constitution, have that power. The president is ignoring us, even though that declaration was made by two Republican majority houses,” Kaine said. Beyond the political and human costs, the ongoing conflict has already roiled global energy markets, with oil prices rising sharply this week as investors price in risks to key transit chokepoints. On Tuesday, U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude traded between $81 and $85 per barrel, while Brent crude futures closed above the $90 per barrel mark for the first time since June 11, a jump that will likely translate to higher fuel prices for consumers worldwide. During his testimony, Hegseth sought to reassure markets that the U.S. military has secured key oil shipping lanes in the region, noting that U.S. forces have taken the lead on escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil transit chokepoint. He claimed that the U.S. has effectively controlled commercial traffic through the strait for an extended period, telling the committee that under the U.S.-led “Project Freedom” security initiative, between 400 million and 500 million barrels of oil have been shipped through the strait in full view of Iranian forces without incident. The president also addressed growing concerns over threats from Yemeni Houthi forces to block oil shipping through the Red Sea, a route that Saudi Arabia has increasingly used as an alternative export corridor to avoid tensions in the Gulf. Trump dismissed the threat, telling reporters that if the Houthis follow through on their promise to block transit, the U.S. will respond with military force. “If there is something like that, we’ll just have to take care of business,” Trump said.