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South Korea, Iran FMs Discuss Hormuz in Call

Members of the CandleAct union carry placards and shout slogans during a rally near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 September 2026. Protesters gathered to oppose a potential deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
Members of the CandleAct union carry placards and shout slogans during a rally near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 September 2026. Protesters gathered to oppose a potential deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
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South Korea, Iran FMs Discuss Hormuz in Call

Members of the CandleAct union carry placards and shout slogans during a rally near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 September 2026. Protesters gathered to oppose a potential deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
Members of the CandleAct union carry placards and shout slogans during a rally near the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea, 10 September 2026. Protesters gathered to oppose a potential deployment of South Korean troops to the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN

The foreign ministers of South Korea and Iran discussed the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call on Friday, Seoul said, days after confirming it was weighing a "contribution" to the waterway's security.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressured ally South Korea to provide help for the war in the Middle East, saying Seoul rejected his request for assistance in securing the waterway that is crucial to global oil supplies.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi at Tehran's request, "discussing the recent situation in the Middle East", and the Strait of Hormuz, the foreign ministry in Seoul said in a statement.

The Friday announcement followed a warning from Tehran earlier this week that any South Korean military contribution to the conflict would have "serious consequences".

South Korea sent a fact-finding team to assess the situation in the strait and has repeatedly said it has not decided whether to deploy its military to Hormuz.

Traffic through the vital shipping route has been virtually paralyzed since the US-Iran war began on February 28, disrupting global energy markets.

Negotiations between Iran and the United States have stalled as they vied for control over Hormuz, which normally carries around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas exports.

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World

Trump Says US May Need to Strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain

US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
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Trump Says US May Need to Strike Iran's Pickaxe Mountain

US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL
US President Donald Trump speaks as members of professional police and firefighters' organizations eat lunch in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC., USA, 15 October 2026. EPA/TOM BRENNER / POOL

President Donald Trump said the US may have to target Pickaxe Mountain, a site linked to Iran's nuclear program, as he aims to ensure Tehran does not get a nuclear weapon.

In an interview with Newsmax on Thursday night, Trump also said he would not use a nuclear weapon in the war on Iran, which began in February ⁠with US-Israeli strikes.

⁠Trump said the US wanted to make sure Iran will never have a nuclear weapon "because if they had it, they would use it."

"Their nuclear is buried under millions of tons of mountain. ⁠Now we're looking at Pickaxe Mountain. We may have to go there. We'll take a shot at that one. We'll knock it out fast," Trump told the news outlet.

Pickaxe Mountain is a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran's main nuclear sites.

The US president said there was no need to use a ⁠nuclear bomb ⁠in Iran. "I wouldn't use nuclear. We don't have to."

Trump reiterated he was not considering using US ground troops in Iran.

Trump did not say if he had authorized the use of GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, also known as the "mother of all bombs," against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites. He did say the MOAB bomb was not a nuclear bomb.

World

Trump's New Press Secretary Admits Failing Bar Exam

President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Trump's New Press Secretary Admits Failing Bar Exam

President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to the reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Washington, as White House press secretary Katie Zacharia looks on. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged on Thursday that she had failed the bar exam, a prerequisite for practicing law in the United States, as her credentials face scrutiny.

Zacharia has described herself as a lawyer during television appearances and on social media, and listed herself as general counsel of a California-based conservative nonprofit.

But the legal credentials of the press secretary, who President Donald Trump appointed last week, were called into question after she gave an inconclusive answer about where she had passed the bar exam.

The 41-year-old graduated from Pepperdine University's law school in 2011, but obtaining a law degree does not automatically qualify someone to practice law.

In a Fox News interview on Thursday, host Sean Hannity asked Zacharia: "You took the bar exam, but you didn't pass the bar exam, correct?"

"Yes," she responded.

In a separate interview with conservative media outlet Real America's Voice on Thursday, Zacharia said she had registered to take the bar exam but was "distracted and overwhelmed" by plans to move to China with her husband.

"The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn't need the bar in China," AFP quoted her as saying.

Foreign nationals cannot sit China's bar exam, although they can undertake certain legal work at Chinese law firms.

Hannity later asked Zacharia if she had ever taken the bar exam a second time, to which she said: "I did not."

"I had four kids in six years," she said. "It was never my intent to go into the practice of law."

Zacharia said on Real America's Voice that "many people in the field" had assured her that she could "label myself a lawyer," given her law degree and experience in business law gained in China, where she worked at a Beijing law firm.

She added that she could "provide legal analysis, not legal advice."

"I was very careful how I executed this."

The Campaign for Accountability, a political ethics organization, called on Wednesday for the California Bar Association to launch an investigation.

"In California, calling yourself a lawyer without a license isn't puffery; it's a crime," the organization said in a press release.

Zacharia held her first White House press briefing on Tuesday with an unusually short press conference, answering questions from only three journalists.

She succeeded Karoline Leavitt, a loyal Trump supporter and often combative press secretary, who stepped down in August to care for her young children.

World

Teen Sentenced to 20 Years for UK Murder Plot Tied to Iran-linked Group

A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
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Teen Sentenced to 20 Years for UK Murder Plot Tied to Iran-linked Group

A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
A red double-decker bus rides past as a Union Jack flag flutters on the Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain, October 15, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

A Norwegian teenager who planned to commit murder in Britain after being recruited by a Swedish organized crime group linked to the Iranian government was on Friday sentenced to 20 years' detention.

Johannes Natland, now 19, was arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, in March ⁠2025 with two ⁠firearms and ammunition in his possession.

Natland was recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organized crime group used by the Iranian state and sanctioned by ⁠both Britain and the United States, prosecutors said.

He admitted possessing a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and ammunition, but denied conspiracy to murder and claimed he did not intend to carry out the plan.

But he was convicted in July after a retrial ⁠and ⁠was sentenced at London's Woolwich Crown Court to detention for 20 years.

Natland was the latest young adult to stand trial in Britain and elsewhere over serious criminal acts allegedly carried out after being recruited online for money, often as an unwitting proxy for a foreign state.