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Pakistani Convicted of Plotting to Kill Trump over Death of Iran Commander

FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
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Pakistani Convicted of Plotting to Kill Trump over Death of Iran Commander

FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran, appears on charges in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, in a courtroom in New York, US, September 16, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo

A Pakistani ‌man was convicted on Friday of planning to kill President Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran, the Department of Justice said.

Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for Washington's killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, when Trump was in his first term.

Targets in the 2024 plot also included then-President Joe Biden and Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump ‌that year for ‌the Republican presidential nomination, federal prosecutors said.

Merchant ‌was ⁠convicted of "murder for ⁠hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries," directed by the Iranian authorities, the DOJ said in a statement.

The trial in the New York City borough of Brooklyn started last week, days before Trump ordered an assault on Iran, carried out with Israel, that has expanded into the region's biggest ⁠war in years.

Merchant admitted to joining the plot ‌with Iran's elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards ‌Corps but testified he did so unwillingly, to protect his family ‌in Tehran.

Merchant said he was never ordered to kill ‌a specific person but that his Iranian handler named three people in the course of conversations in the Iranian capital.

Law enforcement thwarted the plan before any attack occurred. A person Merchant contacted in April 2024 ‌to help with the plot reported his activities and became a confidential informant, the DOJ said. ⁠Merchant was ⁠arrested and pleaded not guilty that year.

The Revolutionary Guards have a central role in Iran, with a combination of military and economic power and an intelligence network. Tehran has denied accusations that it targeted Trump or other US officials.

US and Israeli attacks since Saturday have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran's UN ambassador. Many top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have been killed.

The US military has said six of its service members were killed in a strike on a facility in Kuwait, while Israeli tallies show at least 10 civilians have been killed across Israel.

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World

Trump Confirms He Called Netanyahu Crazy in Phone Call

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Confirms He Called Netanyahu Crazy in Phone Call

US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 29, 2025. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump acknowledged having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled phone exchange over fighting in Lebanon, while the US was trying to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had called the longtime Israeli leader "effing crazy" and accused him of ingratitude, paraphrasing a report by Axios.

"I did," Trump told the "Pod Force One" podcast. "I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know."

Trump went on to say he and Netanyahu get along very well.

According to the Axios report, which cited an unidentified US official, Trump said to Netanyahu in a call on Monday: "You're ‌[expletive] crazy. You'd ‌be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ‌ass. ⁠Everybody hates you ⁠now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."

Trump said in the interview: "At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it."

NETANYAHU CITES COMMON GOALS 

Netanyahu, asked about the Axios report, declined to offer details of the conversation but said his relationship with Trump had not changed. 

"We have common goals. Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements," he said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday. 

"He's been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House, and he respects ⁠me; I respect him. We always find a way to work out our ‌differences." 

Iran has said it will not agree to a deal with the United States to end the war that Trump ⁠and Netanyahu launched in late February, unless a ceasefire also covers Lebanon, ‌which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the ‌Iran-aligned Hezbollah group that fired across the border in support of Tehran.

Hostilities have continued despite a US-mediated agreement ‌announced on Monday that led Israel to step back from attacking the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs ‌of Beirut, and the group to halt cross-border strikes.

Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.

Trump bristled when asked if Netanyahu "tricked" him into attacking ‌Iran, saying his critics were "the enemy."

"I mean, I'm the one that started it," Trump said. "I started because we can't let them have ⁠a nuclear weapon."

"Now ⁠that pertains to Israel, because they probably would have been the first one to get hit. There would be no Israel. Tell you what, if there wasn't me, there would be no Israel right now."

Trump maintained that Israel would have been in a far worse position if he had not abandoned a 2015 accord reached by President Barack Obama and other world leaders with Iran, under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.

After Trump withdrew from that deal during his first White House term in 2018, Iran produced stockpiles of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, which Trump now demands it relinquish. Trump's critics say Iran is now closer to making a nuclear weapon, and it will be hard for Trump to negotiate a better deal today.

World

Trump Touts Vance and Rubio for 2028 Republican Ticket

Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
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Trump Touts Vance and Rubio for 2028 Republican Ticket

Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)

US President Donald Trump thinks the two Republicans most likely to jockey to succeed him would make an unbeatable ticket if they run together, he told an interviewer Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are both widely seen as strong contenders to run for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination -- and as rivals.

"I like them both. I like them together," Trump said on the New York Post podcast "Pod Force One," adding: "I don't know how you beat them if they're together."

The two men would have to agree to it but "they get along really well," Trump mused.

He did not venture to say who should be at the top of the ticket.

Neither man has officially declared his intention to run, and Rubio, 54, has publicly said that the vice president is a friend and insisted that he would not run in 2028 if Vance is a candidate.

Recent polls suggest that Vance and Rubio are nearly tied among Republican voters.

Last month, Rubio attracted buzz for confidently handling a White House press briefing, fielding questions on Iran, Cuba and China with a relaxed style and dashes of humor -- and little of the invective that Trump often unleashes in his briefing room appearances.

World

France Arrests Russian Captain of Moscow-Linked Tanker

A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
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France Arrests Russian Captain of Moscow-Linked Tanker

A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)

French authorities have taken into custody the Russian captain of a seized oil tanker believed to be part of Moscow's "shadow fleet", a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The French navy detained the Tagor on Sunday in international waters with British help on suspicion the ship was flying a false flag and after its captain refused to comply with orders.

It is the fourth ship that France has seized since September on suspicion of belonging to the "shadow fleet", which Russia is accused of using to circumvent Western sanctions.

The tanker arrived in a harbor in Brittany on Tuesday.

The captain was arrested on Tuesday and faces up to one year in prison and a 150,000-euro ($174,000) fine, said the prosecutor in the northwestern city of Brest, Stephane Kellenberger.

The owner of the vessel, currently being identified, may be subject to the same penalties, he added.

The Russian embassy in France said it had demanded "consular access be granted to the captain immediately", in a post on Telegram. It rejected what it called "baseless accusations" and urging the captain to be released "as soon as possible".

The Kremlin has likened the seizure to "international piracy".

The Tagor is suspected of carrying Russian or Iranian oil despite international sanctions. It is linked to shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to open-source database Opensanctions.org.

Shamkhani is the son of Ali Shamkhani, who was a security adviser to the former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. They were both killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks that started the Middle East war.

According to French authorities, the Tagor was on its way from Murmansk in northwestern Russia when it was boarded.

It was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag and was heading toward Limbe, a seaside city in the west of the African country, they added.

France previously detained two tankers in the Mediterranean, the Deyna in March and the Grinch in January, but they were freed after paying fines.

In another case, a French court in March issued a one-year jail sentence in absentia and a 150,000-euro ($177,000) fine against the Chinese captain of a tanker, the Boracay, for failing to comply with orders to stop in September last year off the coast of Brittany.

Several Western countries have imposed sanctions on hundreds of vessels believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Nearly 600 ships suspected of belonging to the fleet are subject to European Union sanctions.