Month: August 2026

There are currently no negotiations happening between the United States and Iran, but all options remain on the table, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview.

This is a developing story.

Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who was was serving a life sentence for his role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia has died, a United Nations official said on Thursday, confirming a report in Serbian media.

The octogenarian former general, nicknamed the Butcher of Bosnia, had been in ill health in the last few years and was hospitalized repeatedly. He had been in the UN detention center since his arrest in 2011.

This is a developing story.

The US Army said on Wednesday it is awarding up to $2.2 billion to five companies to build and operate tiny nuclear reactors on military bases, which it hopes will one day power remote installations.

So-called microreactors are tiny factory-built nuclear plants that developers say will be easily transported and generate up to 20 megawatts of power each.

The Army believes that developing them through a program called Janus could one day help power remote military installations such as those in Alaska or on islands. The program has a goal of deploying the first reactor by September 2028.

The companies and bases the Army selected were: Antares Nuclear Inc in Fort Bragg, North Carolina; BWXT Advanced Technologies LLC in Fort Campbell, Kentucky; General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems in Fort Hood, Texas; Radiant Industries Inc in Fort Benning, Georgia; and Westinghouse Government Services in Fort Drum, New York.

The Army did not detail how much money would be distributed to each company. But Radiant said it will get up to $750 million to develop and deploy 15 of its Kaleidos reactors in the program.

An Army official said reactors will have to follow all environmental and safety rules that apply to commercial reactors but added that they would be regulated by the Army, not the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates commercial reactors.

"The whole idea here is that at the back end of this we want a commercial product," said Jeff Waksman, the principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment.

Radiant’s Chief Commercial Officer Mike Starrett told Reuters in an interview that the Janus award is key to the company scaling up its business to eventually meet the needs of commercial customers like data centers in about 2030.

Critics of microreactors say they will be expensive compared to conventional reactors. Waksman said nobody thinks that microreactors will be lower in cost than conventional plants. "What we are trying to do here with Janus… is to flesh out how we can get those prices down," Waksman said.

The military currently pays about 40 cents a kilowatt-hour to power Arctic installations, a cost it hopes to cut, Waksman said. The Army also expects that the private sector will raise more money for the reactors than the federal government, and the program will help attract that capital.

Starrett said that because Radiant's containerized reactors can be brought to the customer, eliminating energy transmission fees, their delivered cost will be between 20 and 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In its latest effort to quash rumors and concerns that it will sell off more of its assets amid reports that it is the subject of federal investigations into potential tax fraud, TWG Global said Wednesday that its stakes in both the Los Angeles Dodgers and its Cadillac Formula 1 team are not for sale.

The comments were made in a biting news release attacking the investigations and allegations of fraud.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York are investigating the company, and more specifically, founder and CEO Mark Walter.

"Over the past several weeks, multipronged attacks against TWG have been advanced by unnamed sources with self-serving interests that have been reported in the media," the statement began. "It is important to set the record straight. TWG stands firmly behind the integrity of its business and remains focused on continuing to deliver value to its stakeholders.

"Despite what has been reported, there has been no fraud."

Speculation about the potential sale of assets picked up last week when Walter agreed to sell his stake in the Los Angeles Lakers for a reported $12.5 billion – barely a year after purchasing majority ownership for $10 billion.

Shortly after the sale, Dodgers president Stan Kasten told the media, "The Dodgers are not being sold."

In its statement Wednesday, TWG echoed Kasten's words.

“Regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be clear, the team is not being sold, and no sale process has been initiated,” the statement read, before later adding, “Similarly, TWG is not considering exiting its stake in the Cadillac Formula 1 team or any other part of TWG Motorsports.”

"The allegation that the Los Angeles Dodgers were acquired or have been funded improperly is false and not supported by the facts," the statement also added.

Among Walter’s other sports endeavors, he owns the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and French top-flight soccer team RC Strasbourg while holding stakes in the Andretti Global motorsports operation and Chelsea of the Premier League in England.

A US judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X/Twitter seeking to void a New York state law requiring social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, harassment, foreign political interference and disinformation.

US District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan rejected X's argument that the Stop Hiding Hate Act violated the US Constitution's First Amendment by exposing it to lawsuits and big fines unless it disclosed "highly sensitive and controversial speech" that the state found objectionable.

The judge said requiring X to report “purely factual and uncontroversial information” about its content moderation policies was reasonably related to New York’s interest in letting people make informed choices about using social media.

"Businesses always exercise their discretion, judgment, and opinions when deciding what goods or services to offer," Cronan wrote. "Burger King chooses to generally offer higher-calorie items than, say, Sweetgreen, but the disclosure of calorie information remains purely factual. So too here."

The dismissal is with prejudice, meaning X cannot amend its complaint.

X, formerly Twitter, is part of Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX. Neither lawyers for X nor SpaceX immediately responded to requests for comment.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James defended the law. It did not immediately respond to similar requests for comment.

Signed in December 2024 by Governor Kathy Hochul, the New York law required social media companies with at least $100 million of annual revenue to disclose how they eliminate hate on their platforms, and report their progress.

Civil fines can reach $15,000 per violation per day. The law was written with help from the Anti-Defamation League.

In seeking a dismissal, James said the law helped consumers understand what to expect from social media, without blocking platforms from speaking out or exercising judgment when moderating content.

Musk scrapped Twitter’s content moderation policy after he bought that company in 2022. The world’s richest person has described himself as a free speech absolutist.

Dolly Parton, the singer who died Tuesday at age 80 after a brief bout with cancer, was mourned around the world as a stellar songwriter, consummate country hitmaker, savvy entrepreneur and generous philanthropist. 

In Jewish circles, she was also remembered as the inspiration for PJ Library, a program that sends free children’s books to Jewish families in order to foster Jewish values and traditions.

In 2015, when Harold Grinspoon launched PJ Library, he took a page from Parton, who a decade earlier had started Imagination Library, a literacy program that mails free children’s books to families across the US.

After hearing Parton interviewed about the program, Grinspoon, a philanthropist in and out of the Jewish community, signed on as a sponsor of the Imagination Library in Western Massachusetts, where he lives.

“We should create a Jewish version of Imagination Library,” said Grinspoon, according to a 2023 recollection by his daughter-in-law and president of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, Winnie Sandler Grinspoon.

“Harold was looking for ways to build Jewish literacy,” she wrote. “He was witnessing a lack of connection to the values, stories, and traditions that have been at the center of the Jewish experience for millennia.”

Two decades later, PJ Library has more than 670,000 subscribers in 40 countries.

On Tuesday, in a tribute to Parton, PJ Library and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation recalled a meeting between the two in 2023. According to an Instagram post, “she shared the following with him: ‘I am honored to get to help inspire a love of reading in children. They truly are our future.’”

“Harold remembers Dolly as ‘a truly amazing person — not only a great artist, but a great entrepreneur and philanthropist,” according to the post. “We honor Dolly for educating millions, for her remarkable career, her kindness, her art, and especially her generosity.”

“Dolly’s generosity of spirit extended far beyond inspiring the creation of PJ Library,” Alex Zablotsky, PJ Library’s executive director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Parton drew inspiration for her art and philanthropy from her hardscrabble roots in rural Tennessee. She was one of 12 kids growing up in a one-room log cabin in the Smoky Mountains. Parton’s father never learned how to read or write.

“This actually started because my father could not read and write, and I saw how crippling that could be,” Parton said of the Imagination Library at a ceremony where she was awarded a Carnegie Medal for her partnership with a pediatric hospital in East Tennessee, now named for Parton.

“My dad was a very smart man. And I often wondered what he could have done had he been able to read and write. So that is the inspiration,” she said.

Parton had a close bond with other Jews, notably Sandy Gallin, the manager who guided her from Nashville to mainstream pop stardom, according to the Forward.

When Gallin died in 2017, Parton said, “Nobody could quite get how the Christian Southern girl and the New York Jewish boy could have so much in common. But it was real.”

One trouble spot, however, came in a 1994 interview with Vogue Magazine, when Parton mused about starting a television series about a country singer who turns to gospel music. She gave up the idea, she said, because “most of the people out here [Hollywood] are Jewish and it’s frightening for them to promote Christianity.”

She later apologized in a letter to Abe Foxman, then head of the Anti-Defamation League, JTA reported at the time.

“I know how stereotypes can be hurtful,” she wrote. “Like all Americans of good will, I recognize the importance of rejecting prejudice.”

Foxman accepted her apology. “Whatever she said was unfortunate, and she recognizes that,’” Foxman told The New York Times. “I know it’s not easy for celebrities to publicly say they made a mistake. As far as we are concerned, the matter is behind us.”

On Tuesday, Laura Liebman, director of development for The Bronfman Fellowship for young Jewish leaders, paid tribute to the singer, who was a feminist and an ally of the LGBTQ+ community.

“Dolly somehow managed to transcend race, class, religion, politics and gender,” Liebman wrote in an essay for eJewishPhilanthropy. “As the Jewish community becomes increasingly siloed, we could all learn from Dolly’s radical acceptance and show more love and compassion for our fellow Jews.” 

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday declaring a national emergency and banning the use of some foreign equipment in the US electricity grid, the White House said.

The order cites what the White House described as an "unusual and extraordinary foreign threat" posed by foreign-made bulk-power systems that may present national security vulnerabilities.

Trump’s order, the latest example of ⁠Washington’s approach to tackling technology threats posed by China, follows a decision by the European Commission earlier this year to ban Chinese-made inverters from publicly funded energy projects.

Last year, Reuters reported that rogue communication devices not listed in product documents had been found in some Chinese solar power inverters ​by US experts who strip down equipment hooked up to grids to check for security issues.

“I … find that the situation with respect to the foreign supply of bulk-power system electric equipment constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency with respect to that threat,” Trump said in the order.

Under the order, certain foreign-produced bulk-power system electric equipment, including associated critical software and digital capabilities that could pose cybersecurity or operational risks, will be barred from being purchased or installed in the United States, the White House said in a statement.

The order also asks the US Energy Secretary to impose conditions on the continued use and operation of such equipment to address concerns identified by the Trump administration, the White House added.

American singer Miley Cyrus said on Wednesday she was heartbroken following the death of her godmother, country music icon Dolly Parton, who died of cancer at age 80  on Tuesday.

"The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share. Our most sacred moments were private and they'll stay there behind the stage, beneath the glamour & between our hearts," Cyrus, who often referred to Parton as an aunt, wrote on X/Twitter.

"What I KNOW is Dolly would want me to feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong. I have an angel by my side. I always have. One of our last conversations was about music and metamorphosis," added the "Flowers" singer.

Cyrus also said she loved Parton and described her death as a collective loss shared by family members and friends of the late singer-songwriter whose hits included “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene,” and “9 to 5.”

Parton had been a fixture in Cyrus' life since before her birth. The country star became Cyrus' godmother in 1992 after Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley's father, asked her to take on the role. The two had toured together during the success of Billy Ray Cyrus' breakthrough hit "Achy Breaky Heart."

Though Parton never had children of her own, she became a maternal figure to Cyrus.

“Dolly’s been like a mother to me. Actually, I was just reading this fax that she sent me two Mother’s Days ago,” Cyrus told W Magazine in 2024.

Their close relationship also extended to the screen. Parton guest-starred as Miley Stewart’s Aunt Dolly in three episodes of the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana between 2006 and 2010.

Beyond family ties, Parton served as a mentor to Cyrus throughout her music career, helping guide her transition from Disney Channel star to Grammy-winning performer and Hollywood Walk of Fame honoree.

The pair collaborated numerous times over the years. In 2019, they performed a duet of Parton's "Jolene" during a Grammy Awards tribute to the country music legend.

They reunited in 2022 for NBC's live special "Miley's New Year's Eve Party," performing Parton's "I Will Always Love You" and Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."

Major album releases by some of the world’s biggest music stars are linked to an increase in fatal traffic crashes in the United States, according to a Harvard University study examining road deaths between 2017 and 2022.

Researchers analyzed 233,809 traffic fatalities during the six-year period and found that the rate of fatal crashes increased by 15.1% on days when major albums were released on streaming platforms. That translated into an additional 18 deaths on each such day.

"The number of traffic deaths was significantly higher on major music album release days than during the 10 days before and after," the study found.

The researchers examined 10 prominent albums released in the United States between 2017 and 2022, including Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Harry Styles’s Harry’s House, and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.

The musicians themselves are not to blame, of course. Rather, the findings provide further evidence of the effect that mobile phone use and listening to music can have in distracting drivers from the road.

Dr. Vishal Patel, one of the study's authors, said the release of a new album could distract drivers because accessing music involves a search process rather than simply pressing a single button.

"You open your phone, open the app, find the song, read a song list, tap the right song. That's several seconds of looking at the screen."

Another surprising finding was that the increase in crashes was recorded, among other places, in cars equipped with Apple CarPlay connectivity. The system entered the market as early as 2016, ahead of Android Auto, and connects a mobile phone to a vehicle’s audio system. Such applications are generally considered tools that reduce risk by limiting the need to use a phone screen directly.

According to Patel, unfamiliar music may itself demand more attention from drivers. New songs are also often played at higher volume, he said, which can further weaken a driver’s connection to what is happening on the road.

The researchers' recommendation is straightforward: If there is a passenger in the vehicle, let that person handle the music.

The advice, however, does not solve the problem for people driving alone, who may still be tempted to search for, select, or switch tracks while behind the wheel.

US CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence officials during his visit to Moscow on Tuesday but did not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been briefed on the outcome of Ratcliffe's talks, but declined to provide further details.

Peskov said it was also too early to say whether such contacts between the two countries' intelligence agencies could help pull US-Russia relations out of what he described as a "deep crisis."

Reports first emerged on Tuesday that Ratcliffe traveled to Russia aboard a US military C-17 transport plane for meetings in Moscow and left that evening.

The visit was the first known visit to the Russian capital by a US spy chief since Ratcliffe’s predecessor, William Burns, held talks with Vladimir Putin in November 2021. About three months after that meeting, the Russian president launched Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The last direct flight of a US-registered jet to Russia from Europe took place in January this year, carrying special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner for peace talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.

A source familiar with the details of Ratcliffe’s trip told The Jerusalem Post that Trump administration officials asked Ukraine several days ago to pause any strikes against Moscow and other cities from Monday through Wednesday.