FBI RAID OF TRUMP’S ESTATE PROMPTS REPUBLICAN ANGER AND 2024 SPECULATION

Federal agents searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday in part because they believed additional classified information remained at the private club after the National Archives retrieved more than a dozen boxes of White House documents from the resort earlier this year, people familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Trump was in New York at the time, as the resort is mostly dormant during the summer months. The Federal Bureau of Investigation met U.S. Secret Service employees on Monday morning outside Mar-a-Lago to alert them they were executing the warrant. After the search, the federal agents hauled away roughly 10 more boxes, a person with knowledge of the operation said.

The extraordinary law-enforcement action came two months after Justice Department lawyers, including an official who supervises investigations involving classified information, visited the Palm Beach, Fla., residence seeking more information about potentially sensitive material that had been taken there from the White House.

Monday’s hourslong search marked an escalation of a federal investigation that began earlier this year into how classified documents ended up in boxes of White House records discovered at Mar-a-Lago.

The Justice Department has been looking into the former president’s handling of official records as well as his actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Monday’s search is separate from the Jan. 6 investigation, the people familiar with the probe said. Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing and casts the investigations as part of a long-running campaign by Democrats.

The FBI was executing a warrant, which is predicated on the belief that there may be evidence of a crime at that location, though it is unclear how the investigation may progress and whether prosecutors are considering bringing any charges against Mr. Trump. It adds to potential legal trouble the former president faces as he signals he might make another bid for the White House in 2024.

The Justice Department recently added more prosecutors and resources to a separate inquiry into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss, with clear signs that investigators are examining Mr. Trump’s own actions around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and not just those of his associates. A House panel conducting a parallel investigation has been interviewing additional witnesses this week.

BOATS MAROONED, LANDS PARCHED AS DROUGHT DRIES UP EUROPE

Villers-le-Lac, France : Business for Francoise DrozBartholet has reduced to a trickle, just like stretches of the Doubs River straddling the French-Swiss border that her cruise boats usually ply. Water levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across western Europe are running low, or even dry, amid the severest drought in decades which is putting stress on drinking water supplies, hampering river freight and tourism and threatening crop yields. “We hope this drought is an exception to the rule,” said Droz-Bartholet, whose bookings are 20% lower than usual.

Conditions have deteriorated across Europe. In Spain, farmers fear a harsh drought may reduce olive oil output by nearly a third in the world’s largest producer. In France which is facing fourth heatwave this week, trucks are delivering water to dozens of villages without water. In Germany, cargo vessels cannot sail fully loa- ded along the Rhine, and along Italy’s river Po, large sandbanks now bake in the sun as water levels recede.

Britain’s weather service on Tuesday issued an amber “Extreme Heat” warning for parts of England and Wales, with no respite in sight from hot dry conditions that have sparked fires, broken temperature records and strained the nation’s infrastructure. The amber warning — the second-most severe after red — will be in place from Thursday through to the end of Sunday, the UK Met Office said. Temperatures are expected to peak at 35°C.

EX-ISI CHIEF’S TRANSFER HINTS AT PAK’S POLICY SHIFT TOWARDS KABUL

Islamabad : The transfer of Pakistan army’s Peshawar corps commander Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to Bahawalpur has been seen as a strategic policy shift by Islamabad towards Kabul and Pakistani militants living with their families across the border in Afghanistan.

Known for its involvement in the Soviet-Afghan War, the Peshawar corps (XI Corps), had become the main Pakistani formation after 9/11 to fight militancy in the tribal regions and adjacent districts in the country’s northwest.

According to the Pakistan army’s media wing, Lt Gen Sardar Hassan Azhar Hayat has been transferred to the Peshawar corps to replace Hameed, who has been posted as commander, Bahawalpur corps.

Transfers and postings are routine in military services but Hameed’s case is regarded as rare. His name had first caught the media’s attention over his role in ending a sit-in protest by a far-right group in Islamabad in November 2017 against legislation the group considered blasphemous.

Widely considered as being close to former PM Imran Khan, Hameed’s transfer from ISI DG last year to head the important Peshawar corps had become a bone of contention between Khan and army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

3 PALESTINIANS KILLED, 69 INJURED IN WEST BANK RAID

Three people were killed and dozens wounded on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health ministry said, as Israeli forces raided the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The Israeli military said a senior militant commander was among the dead.

The latest violence comes two days after deadly fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in the coastal enclave of Gaza was halted by a truce.

In Nablus, an AFP correspondent reported Palestinians trading gunfire with Israeli security forces. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated 69 people for gunshot wounds across the Nablus area, at least four of them in critical condition.

“The terrorist Ibrahim al-Nabulsi was killed in the city of Nablus,” the Israeli Army said in a statement, adding that “another terrorist” also died.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid hailed the raid as a “highly successful, precise action without casualties” among the security forces.

Following the raid, the militant group said “the response will fit the crime”.

BIDEN ENDS TRUMP-ERA ‘WAIT IN MEXICO’ POLICY

Washington : The US department of homeland security announced on Monday night it will end a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their applications play out in court. The DHS announcement comes hours after a judge lifted an injunction that had prevented US President Joe Biden’s administration from ending the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Under the policy, instituted in 2019 under former president Donald Trump, thousands of asylum-seekers were sent across the border until required to appear in the US for immigration hearings. Critics called the plan cruel and dangerous.

The policy will be rolled back “in a quick, and orderly, manner,” the department said. No one else will be enrolled and those who cross the border for their court dates will no longer be sent back to Mexico afterwards, the DHS added.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES IRANIAN SATELLITE

A Russian rocket on Tuesday successfully launched an Iranian satellite into orbit.

The Soyuz rocket lifted off as scheduled at 8.52 a.m. Moscow time (0552 GMT) on Tuesday from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. About nine minutes after the launch, it placed the Iranian satellite called Khayyam into orbit. It’s named after Omar Khayyam, a Persian scientist. Iran has said the satellite fitted with high-resolution camera will be used for environmental monitoring.

Tehran said no other country will have access to information it gathers and it would be used for civilian purposes only, but there have been allegations that Russia may use it for surveillance of Ukraine.

If it operates successfully, the satellite would give Iran the ability to monitor Israel and other countries in the Middle East. Yuri Borisov, head of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos, hailed the launch as an “important landmark” in cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

PAK. TELEVISION STATION CRITICAL OF GOVT. OFF AIR

A popular Pakistan television station critical of the current government has been taken off air in much of the country for allegedly airing “seditious” content, the channel said on Tuesday.

Ammad Yousaf, vice president of ARY News, said the decision would be challenged in court. A notice seen by AFP from the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to ARY said “hateful, seditious and malicious content on your channel raises serious concerns about your mala fideintent”.

NEW ZOONOTIC VIRUS HITS CHINA, 35 PEOPLE INFECTED: REPORT

Beijing : A new type of animal-derived Henipavirus has so far infected people in Shandong and Henan provinces of China, official media in Beijing reported on Tuesday.

The new type of Henipavirus (also named Langya henipavirus, LayV) was found in throat swab samples from febrile patients in eastern China, state-run Global Times quoted media reports.

Scholars who participated in the study pointed out that this newly discovered Henipavirus, which may have come from animals, is associated with some febrile cases, and the infected people have symptoms including fever, fatigue, cough, anorexia, myalgia, and nausea. There is currently no vaccine for Henipavirus and the only treatment is supportive care to manage complications.

The cases so far have not been fatal or very serious, so there is no need for panic, Wang Linfa, a professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School who was involved in the study said.

GUCCI BECOMES 1ST MAJOR BRAND TO ACCEPT CRYPTO COIN AS PAYMENT

High-end Italian fashion giant Gucci has become the first major brand to start accepting payments in the form of the Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated ApeCoin (APE). The move was announced last week and could provide the ApeCoin project with significant mainstream exposure, besides bringing much-needed further utility to the barely five-month-old cryptocurrency. The move towards crypto by Gucci comes despite the ongoing crypto bear market, wherein all major crypto coins like bitcoin, Ethereum, dogecoin etc. have bled red heavily. But this is not Gucci’s first step in the crypto and NFT market. In February 2022, Gucci kicked things off with the “SuperGucci” NFT collection in collaboration with vinyl toy brand Superplastic. The following month, Gucci rolled out the “Gucci Grail” NFT collection targeted toward owners of top NFT projects such as the BAYC. As of now, Gucci will accept ApeCoin in US stores and plans to expand that reach across the rest of its North American presence. Apecoin’s price has soared from nearly $6 on August 2 to $7. 4 on August 9.