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Iran Tells U.S. to Accept “Defeat” as Trump Warns of Prolonged High Gas Prices Amid Hormuz Standoff

Iran US accept defeat

Iran called on the United States to accept defeat on Saturday, while President Donald Trump described Tehran as “very evil” and told Americans to brace for continued high fuel prices as the war between the two countries drags on. Progress toward peace talks remained stalled, and oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stayed halted, with no indication either side is moving toward ending the conflict that the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi delivered the sharpest rhetoric of the day in a post on X. “This strait will be opened and closed only under Iran’s command, and so long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and stop indulging in fantasies, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade,” Gharibabadi wrote. His comments came as Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran had not decided whether to resume talks with Washington. In an interview published Saturday by Iranian news outlet Shahrara News, Araqchi said the U.S. must meet Iran’s conditions on the strait before shipping can resume through the waterway, which handled roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil before the war began.

Trump defends the cost of the conflict

Trump addressed the economic toll of the war directly at a political rally in Garden City, New York, on Friday, urging Americans to accept “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” in exchange for preventing what he called “a very evil country” from acquiring a nuclear weapon, one of the stated justifications he has given for the war. He also floated a dramatic escalation of U.S. ambitions in the region. “After we finish defeating Iran… pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said.

Throughout the conflict, Trump has shifted between threatening further escalation and claiming a peace deal is close at hand, a pattern that has continued into this latest round of statements. The financial impact of that uncertainty is already visible at the pump. The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline stood at about $4.08 on Friday, up 29% from a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association. Trump campaigned for reelection on a promise to lower energy costs, and Democrats are now working to turn the war’s economic fallout into a campaign issue ahead of November’s congressional elections.

Oil markets reflected the tension as well. Crude oil futures rose $1 a barrel on Friday, with benchmark Brent futures on track for a weekly gain of 6.0% and West Texas Intermediate up 5.4% for the week.

Iran points to its own economic strain

Tehran has matched Washington’s rhetoric in recent days as efforts to reach a lasting resolution appear stuck. Gharibabadi dismissed the idea that U.S. military posturing could resolve the standoff. “The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier, by issuing an order or by delivering an election speech,” he said.

Despite that defiance, Iran is showing signs of economic strain from the conflict. President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking on state television, blamed rising inflation in Iran on a U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and continued sanctions on the country’s oil exports. Iran’s use of the word “blockade” mirrors the term Washington has applied to its own threats against Iranian vessels attempting to leave their ports, with both sides now describing the other’s actions in nearly identical language.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both pledged to increase financial pressure on Iran going forward. Bessent told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight” program on Thursday that additional measures targeting Iran would be announced next week. Trump, for his part, framed the broader U.S. campaign as a benefit to the international community. “What we’re doing is a great service for the world, not only for ourselves… and we’re really doing a great job,” he said.

Shipping traffic remains near a standstill

The practical effect of the standoff shows up most clearly in shipping data. Only two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, and neither carried visible crude oil shipments, according to analysis from ship-tracking firm Kpler. Some vessels may still be crossing the strait undetected with their transponders switched off, but even accounting for that possibility, current traffic falls far short of the more than 130 ships that used to cross the strait daily before the war began. Vessels that attempt to navigate the strait without Iranian permission face the risk of missile or drone strikes.

That risk has already materialized multiple times in the past two days. The UAE accused Iran of attacking a third vessel operated by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company while it was transiting the strait on Friday, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported. The accusation followed two earlier incidents involving ADNOC vessels in the strait that the UAE blamed on Iran Thursday evening. Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre reported that a bulk carrier was struck in the hull by an unknown projectile in the strait on Friday. It remains unclear whether that report refers to the same incident involving the ADNOC vessel or a separate attack entirely.

A collapsed ceasefire and a widening regional conflict

A tentative deal reached in June to end the war has effectively fallen apart. Araqchi rejected the framing that Iran and the U.S. ever had a formal ceasefire to extend. “We did not have a ceasefire in the first place that we would now want to extend,” he said. “We had ‘the end of the war,’ and now there is a new situation.”

The conflict’s reach is also extending beyond Iran and the strait itself. Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen renewed fears of a broader regional war after Yemen’s internationally recognized government said the group fired six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha on Friday, killing four civilians. The strike adds another front to a conflict that began as a bilateral war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran but has increasingly drawn in Iran-aligned armed groups operating elsewhere in the region.

With shipping through the Strait of Hormuz still largely frozen, oil prices climbing, and both Washington and Tehran doubling down on hardline public statements, there is little indication that either side is prepared to de-escalate in the near term. The economic pressure mounting on both countries, reflected in U.S. gas prices and Iranian inflation alike, has yet to translate into renewed diplomatic movement, leaving the war’s trajectory as uncertain as it has been since fighting began in February.

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George Mensah

George Mensah is a Senior Political & Conflict Correspondent at ClicxPost, covering global politics, international conflict, and economic developments. With five years of experience in breaking news and geopolitical reporting, he delivers fast, accurate analysis on major world events.

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Grocery Prices Still Rising Two Years After Trump’s Bedminster Inflation Pledge, Testing Republicans Ahead of Midterms

August 15, 2026 No Comments

Two years after Donald Trump staged a New Jersey press conference surrounded by grocery staples to attack inflation under Democrats, food prices are still climbing despite his promise to bring them down. The gap between that pledge and the current reality now threatens to become a liability for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections. Trump stood among tables piled with fruit, beef, cereal, milk, and other household staples at his Bedminster golf club on August 15, 2024, blaming the Biden administration for sharp increases in grocery costs. The event, which included charts displaying rising prices, targeted Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and centered on Trump’s core campaign promise: that he alone could tame inflation and lower the cost of living for American families. Two years later, higher gasoline and grocery prices are squeezing household budgets and pushing the cost of living to the top of voters’ concerns. For the first time in nearly a decade, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows voters giving Democrats a slight edge over Republicans on economic stewardship. A voter’s frustration at the checkout line Sheila Carney, a 68-year-old Trump voter, punctuated her frustration with an expletive as she loaded $70 worth of groceries into her car outside a supermarket near Trump’s Bedminster club. The purchase was modest: some meat, detergent, and a 12-pack of iced tea. For Carney, the receipt stood as proof that affordability concerns Trump has sometimes dismissed as a Democratic “hoax” remain a daily burden for many Americans. “This is real. He can say it’s not, but it is,” said Carney, a hospital administration assistant who has delayed retirement while helping pay off her son’s student loans. “He hasn’t brought anything down.” A Reuters analysis of 26 grocery categories tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the same categories featured in Trump’s Bedminster display, found prices have risen 3.4% during the first 19 months of his second term. That pace is less than a quarter of what was recorded at the same point in Joe Biden’s term, but it still falls short of Trump’s pledge to lower prices outright, as surges in coffee, beef, and apples have outweighed declines in items like eggs and butter. A White House official pointed to data released Wednesday showing that U.S. consumer prices barely increased in July from the month before, citing it as evidence that inflation is under control. “The July CPI report is further proof that President Trump’s long-term agenda is delivering: prescription drug and auto insurance costs continue to fall, real wages are rising, and beef prices have cooled while other household essentials like eggs, poultry, and dairy remain low,” the official said. Republican enthusiasm wavers Carney, a registered Republican, said high grocery and gasoline prices tied to the Iran war were among the reasons she has grown disillusioned enough to consider skipping the midterms entirely, a sentiment that echoes recent polling showing Republicans less enthusiastic about voting than Democrats this cycle. 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UAE Says Iran Attacked ADNOC Vessel in Strait of Hormuz, Third Incident in Under a Week

August 15, 2026 No Comments

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday that Iran attacked a vessel belonging to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, according to the Emirati state news agency WAM. The strike marks the third such incident involving ADNOC vessels in less than a week, deepening a pattern of maritime attacks that has rattled shipping through one of the world’s most critical oil corridors. ADNOC said no injuries were reported in connection with the attack and that the situation was under control, WAM reported. The company has not released further details about the extent of damage to the vessel or the nature of the attack itself. The UAE foreign ministry responded by calling on Tehran to halt what it described as unprovoked attacks, end hostilities, and fully reopen the waterway. Iran had not issued any immediate comment on the accusation as of Saturday. Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, addressed the incident directly in a post on X. “We will safeguard our rights to freedom of navigation… while continuing the path of dialogue and prioritising diplomatic options,” Gargash wrote, signaling that Abu Dhabi intends to respond to the pattern of attacks without abandoning efforts toward a diplomatic resolution. A pattern of repeated strikes Saturday’s reported attack follows two earlier incidents in the same week, both of which the UAE also attributed to Iran. Those prior strikes, like Saturday’s, targeted ADNOC vessels transiting the strait, according to Reuters reporting on the earlier attacks. The repetition has hardened the UAE’s public stance, with officials framing the incidents as a sustained campaign rather than isolated events. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have previously issued threats against vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, warning of action against ships linked to Tehran’s adversaries or those that fail to comply with Iranian directives. Those past warnings provide context for the UAE’s accusations, though Iran has not directly claimed responsibility for the recent string of attacks on ADNOC vessels. Separately, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said it had received a report of a bulk carrier being struck by an unknown projectile in the strait on Friday. It remains unclear whether that incident involved the same ADNOC vessel referenced in Saturday’s WAM report or a separate ship altogether. The UKMTO did not immediately specify the carrier’s identity or flag. Why the strait matters The Strait of Hormuz sits between Oman and Iran and functions as one of the busiest chokepoints for global energy trade. Before the current conflict, roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the narrow waterway on its way to markets in Asia, Europe, and beyond. Its geography, a narrow channel bordered by Iranian territory on one side, gives Tehran significant leverage over global shipping traffic whenever tensions in the region escalate. That leverage has become increasingly relevant since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran broke out on February 28. Shipping through the strait has faced repeated disruptions since the conflict began, pushing freight rates higher and forcing shipping companies to reassess security protocols for vessels transiting the area. Insurance costs for tankers and cargo ships passing through the strait have climbed as underwriters price in the elevated risk of attack. ADNOC, Abu Dhabi’s state oil company, ranks among the largest energy producers in the world. The company exports crude oil, natural gas, and refined petroleum products to markets globally, making it a central player in the UAE’s economy and a frequent target of scrutiny whenever regional tensions threaten shipping lanes. The repeated targeting of ADNOC vessels specifically, rather than a broader mix of international shipping, has drawn attention to whether Iran is deliberately singling out Emirati state assets as part of the broader conflict. Diplomatic and security implications The UAE’s response so far has combined public condemnation with an emphasis on continued dialogue. Gargash’s statement reflects that dual approach, asserting the UAE’s right to defend its vessels and interests while explicitly stating a preference for diplomatic channels over escalation. Whether that balance holds will likely depend on whether the attacks continue. Regional shipping operators are watching the situation closely, given the strait’s outsized role in global energy supply chains. Any sustained disruption to traffic through Hormuz carries the potential to affect oil and gas prices well beyond the Gulf region, a dynamic that has played out repeatedly since the war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran began earlier this year. Iran’s silence on the specific accusation from ADNOC and the UAE leaves open questions about how Tehran will respond to the latest round of claims. Past incidents in the strait have sometimes drawn direct denials from Iranian officials and, at other times, no response at all, making it difficult to predict whether a formal reply will follow this latest incident. For now, ADNOC has indicated the situation involving Saturday’s vessel is under control, suggesting no immediate operational disruption to the company’s shipping activities. But the accumulation of three attacks in under a week signals that maritime security in the strait remains volatile, with each new incident adding pressure on the UAE to determine how far it is willing to go to protect its fleet without triggering further escalation. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency’s separate report of a bulk carrier strike on Friday adds another layer of uncertainty to the broader picture, raising the possibility that Iran’s actions, or those of other actors operating in the strait, extend beyond ADNOC-specific targets to a wider range of commercial shipping traffic. As the conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran continues, the Strait of Hormuz is likely to remain a flashpoint, with any additional attacks carrying the potential to further disrupt one of the world’s most important energy trade routes and add new pressure on international efforts to de-escalate the broader regional conflict.

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Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan Detail Military Pact Amid Iran Tensions

August 13, 2026 No Comments

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will establish joint political and military coordination bodies, conduct combined military exercises and expand defense industry cooperation under a pact signed between the three nations last week, Turkey’s defense ministry said Thursday. The announcement provides the first detailed roadmap for how the three Sunni Muslim countries, all close U.S. allies, intend to implement the agreement they signed on August 7 amid rising alarm over a regional conflict that has sent Iranian missile fire toward Gulf oil exporters. The pact represents one of the most significant new security arrangements to emerge from the wider instability that has gripped the Middle East since fighting broke out between the United States, Israel and Iran earlier this year. Pact modeled on NATO’s collective defense clause The three nations signed what they called the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on August 7, stipulating that an armed attack against any one member would be treated as an attack against all three. The provision closely mirrors Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, the collective defense clause that obligates alliance members to respond jointly to an attack on any member state. The comparison to NATO’s Article 5 has drawn particular attention given the makeup of the three signatories. Pakistan is a declared nuclear power, while Saudi Arabia remains the world’s largest oil exporter and Turkey fields the second-largest standing army in NATO. A mutual defense commitment binding these three militaries together marks a notable departure from the more informal security cooperation that has traditionally characterized relations among Sunni Muslim-majority states in the region. At a weekly briefing in Ankara, Turkey’s defense ministry said the pact’s central purpose was to place defense and military ties among the three countries on a “more institutional and sustainable” footing going forward, rather than relying on the ad hoc bilateral arrangements that have governed cooperation in the past. New coordination bodies planned According to the ministry, the agreement calls for the creation of strategic political and military mechanisms involving each country’s defense ministers, foreign ministers, and chiefs of general staff or armed forces commanders. Coordination among the three nations will take place “at the highest level,” the ministry said, suggesting the pact is designed to function as a standing forum for regular consultation rather than a one-time declaration of solidarity. The ministry did not specify how frequently these bodies would meet or where they would be headquartered, but described the arrangement as intended to give the three countries a durable structure for managing shared security concerns as the regional situation evolves. Joint exercises to span multiple domains The ministry also outlined plans for joint military exercises spanning land, naval and air forces, along with cooperation on air defense systems and unmanned military technology. The scope of the planned exercises suggests the three militaries intend to build interoperability across a broad range of combat domains rather than limiting cooperation to a single branch of their armed forces. Naval cooperation in particular carries added significance given Saudi Arabia’s exposure to Gulf shipping routes and the broader disruption to regional maritime traffic caused by the ongoing conflict involving Iran. Coordinated air defense planning also reflects the immediate concern driving the pact: the threat of missile and drone strikes that has already reached Gulf oil-exporting states during the current fighting. Defense industry cooperation to expand Beyond joint exercises, the three countries plan to deepen cooperation across their defense industries. The ministry said the goal extends beyond simply supplying military products and systems to one another. “The aim is to provide not only product and system supply, but also joint development and production, technology cooperation, and sustainable maintenance and logistics support,” the ministry said. It added that unmanned and autonomous systems, electronic warfare capabilities and artificial intelligence would be treated as priority areas for cooperation. The emphasis on joint development rather than one-way arms sales points to an ambition among the three countries to build shared defense manufacturing capacity rather than simply relying on purchases from outside powers. Turkey has invested heavily in recent years in domestic drone and defense technology production, an industry that could form the backbone of the pact’s technology-sharing ambitions with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Pact open to expansion, Turkey says Turkey, which maintains NATO’s second-largest army, said the agreement with nuclear-armed Pakistan and top global oil exporter Saudi Arabia remains open to additional members, naming Egypt as a potential future candidate. Turkish officials stressed the pact is not intended to replace any of the countries’ existing alliances or defense commitments, an apparent effort to reassure Washington and other Western partners that the arrangement is additive rather than a realignment away from established security relationships. The openness to expansion, particularly the mention of Egypt, signals that the three founding members may see the pact as the foundation for a broader Sunni Muslim security bloc rather than a fixed trilateral arrangement. Egypt, like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, maintains close security ties with the United States while also navigating its own relationship with Iran and other regional powers. Turkey also joins Red Sea shipping talks Separately, the defense ministry said Turkey is participating in meetings in Jeddah aimed at building an international coalition to protect shipping in the Red Sea from attacks linked to Yemen’s Houthi movement. The talks come as regional powers work to shore up maritime security across multiple Middle East shipping corridors amid the broader escalation involving Iran. The Jeddah talks run parallel to the trilateral defense pact and reflect a wider pattern of regional states moving to coordinate security responses as instability spreads across multiple fronts, from the Gulf to the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia, which has led the push for an international coalition to protect Red Sea shipping, has positioned itself at the center of both initiatives, underscoring the kingdom’s efforts to shape the region’s evolving security architecture as the fallout from the Iran conflict continues to spread.

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Strait of Hormuz control

Iran Claims Control of Strait of Hormuz, Contradicting Trump’s Assertion

August 13, 2026 No Comments

The Strait of Hormuz remains “under Iran’s control and management,” the newly appointed head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary unit said Thursday, directly contradicting a statement a day earlier from U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States had “total control” of the strategic waterway. The dueling claims highlight how contested the narrow shipping channel remains, months after fighting first broke out between the United States, Israel and Iran, and underscore how far apart Washington and Tehran remain on the question of who actually holds sway over one of the world’s most vital energy corridors. Hossein Taeb said the United States had attempted to undermine what he called the Islamic Republic’s regional popularity by launching another war in the Strait of Hormuz, but had been defeated again despite claiming Iran possessed neither an air force nor a navy. “Today you see that the Strait of Hormuz is under the management and control of the Islamic Republic,” Taeb said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. He added that Iran continues to operate in the strait with complete security, framing the situation as a demonstration of Tehran’s resilience against a much larger military power. Taeb’s comments come as he settles into his new post atop the Basij, the volunteer paramilitary force affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that has played a central role in both domestic security operations and, more recently, the country’s posture toward Gulf shipping lanes. A vital corridor for global energy The Strait of Hormuz sits between Iran and Oman, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and, beyond that, the open waters of the Arabian Sea. At its narrowest point, the shipping channel is only a few dozen miles wide, making it one of the most consequential chokepoints in global trade. Tankers carrying crude oil, refined products and liquefied natural gas from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Iran itself have historically relied on the strait as the only sea route out of the Gulf. That dependence is why any disruption to traffic through the strait tends to ripple quickly through global energy markets, and why control of the waterway has become such a central point of dispute in the current conflict. War disrupted global oil shipping route The conflict began on February 28 with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. In response, Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas had previously moved before the fighting started. The closure marked one of the most significant disruptions to global energy shipping in years, forcing producers and buyers across the Gulf to reroute or halt shipments through the corridor. The United States then imposed a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and ports, while stating it would protect freedom of navigation for vessels traveling to and from ports outside Iran, positioning its own naval presence as a counterweight to Tehran’s closure of the strait. The competing military postures, Iran restricting the waterway while the U.S. Navy sought to guarantee passage for non-Iranian shipping, have effectively turned the strait into a contested zone where both sides claim authority but neither fully controls the flow of traffic. Ceasefire collapsed after weeks In June, the United States and Iran reached an interim agreement establishing a permanent ceasefire and calling for a swift return to freedom of navigation throughout the Gulf. The deal was seen at the time as a potential turning point that could restore normal shipping through the strait and ease pressure on global oil markets. That agreement broke down several weeks later after Iran resumed limited attacks on vessels it said were operating in violation of the deal’s terms. Tehran maintained that the vessels it targeted were sailing in ways inconsistent with the arrangements laid out in the interim agreement, though it did not elaborate further on the specific violations it alleged. The United States responded by restarting strikes on Iran’s southern provinces, saying the strikes were intended to degrade Tehran’s capacity to target vessels in the Gulf. The renewed fighting effectively erased the brief window of de-escalation the June agreement had created, returning the conflict to the state of open hostility that has now stretched on for months. Iran ties reopening to U.S. compliance Separately on Thursday, senior military political official Rasoul Sanaei-Rad said Iran would not reopen the strait until the other side fulfilled its obligations under the interim agreement. He said the waterway’s reopening was not something the United States could achieve on its own, according to Fars news, a position that suggests Tehran views the strait’s status as leverage in any future negotiations rather than a matter it is prepared to concede unilaterally. Sanaei-Rad also warned that Iran would respond with greater force in any future conflict. “In a possible future war, we will stand more firmly and more offensively,” he said, a comment that signals Tehran does not view the current standoff as settled and is preparing for the possibility of renewed large-scale fighting. Competing narratives, unresolved conflict The competing claims from Washington and Tehran over control of the strait underscore the fragility of the ceasefire and the unresolved tensions that continue to threaten one of the world’s most critical shipping corridors. Trump’s assertion of “total control” and Taeb’s counterclaim that the strait remains under Iranian management reflect not just a dispute over facts on the water, but a broader struggle over which side can credibly claim the upper hand in a conflict that has already disrupted global energy flows once and could do so again. With the interim agreement in tatters and both sides trading strikes in recent weeks, the path back to a durable ceasefire remains unclear. Iran’s insistence that it will not reopen the strait until the United States meets its own commitments suggests any resolution will require further negotiation rather than a unilateral declaration from either side. In the meantime, tankers, insurers and energy markets are left navigating a waterway whose control is claimed by both combatants but guaranteed by neither.

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Karoline Leavitt to Step Down as White House Press Secretary at Month’s End

August 13, 2026 No Comments

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Sex-Trafficking Prosecutions Fall as Trump Administration Diverts Resources to Immigration Enforcement

August 13, 2026 No Comments

Federal sex-trafficking prosecutions have stalled over the past six months despite the Trump administration’s repeated claims that fighting the crime remains a top priority, according to Reuters interviews with 25 former prosecutors, current agents and victims’ advocates, along with a review of federal court records. Staffing shortages, funding cuts, immigration enforcement demands and growing distrust of the government among victims have combined to slow investigations and reduce prosecutions, the review found. “You can’t say something is a priority and then not provide the resources to make that happen,” said Jacqueline Kelley, a former federal prosecutor in New York who led the prosecution of rapper and actor Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution. Federal sex-trafficking charges have dropped to their slowest pace since 2010. The Justice Department charged 73 people through June, about 22% fewer than the average number charged during the first half of the past three years, according to court records. Related crimes have seen similar declines. The department charged 1,230 people with child pornography violations through June, 3% below the three-year average for the same period. It charged 318 people under the Mann Act, which targets interstate prostitution, an 18% drop from average. The declines reflect a broader shift in federal law enforcement priorities under President Donald Trump, who has cut agency budgets and directed resources toward deportations. Charges for crimes unrelated to immigration, ranging from tax evasion to drug trafficking, fell 7% through June to about 22,000, court records show. Attorney general confirmation follows Epstein controversy The findings arrive shortly after the Senate confirmed Trump nominee Todd Blanche as Attorney General in a 50-49 vote, with two Republicans breaking from the party. Blanche’s confirmation faced bipartisan criticism over his handling of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his approval of a transfer to a minimum-security prison for Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, shortly after personally interviewing her. Blanche told Congress that combating human trafficking “remains a Department priority given the gravity of the harm it causes.” The administration also named a new national coordinator for child exploitation and human trafficking, career prosecutor Alessandra Serano. Serano told Reuters the department remains committed to fighting sex trafficking. She attributed the decline in new prosecutions to prosecutors and investigators spending time on a backlog of ongoing cases rather than opening new ones. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katherine Currie declined to comment on the Reuters review but said her agency remains committed to both immigration and sex-crimes enforcement. Veteran prosecutors and agents leave their posts Sex-trafficking cases rank among the most difficult to investigate and prosecute, requiring investigators to untangle patterns of psychological abuse, trace illicit finances and build trust with traumatized victims. Dozens of experienced sex-trafficking prosecutors have left the Justice Department in recent months, according to seven former prosecutors who worked such cases. For part of last year, the majority of Homeland Security Investigations agents were assigned to immigration duties rather than trafficking cases, according to current agents and prior Reuters reporting. In some U.S. attorney’s offices, the shortage of prosecutors has become so severe that agents working sex-trafficking cases cannot find anyone to pursue them, agents and former prosecutors said. Serano said staff turnover is common in these roles because the work “takes a toll on people more than other types of cases.” Former prosecutors who spoke with Reuters said the recent departures exceeded typical attrition. Serano said the department is actively hiring to fill the vacancies. To assess the department’s enforcement record, Reuters obtained dockets for every publicly filed federal criminal case over the past two decades from Westlaw, a Thomson Reuters legal research service, and used artificial intelligence to help classify some charges. A review of a random sample found the classifications were 98% accurate. The Justice Department said its internal data showed a smaller decline but declined to explain its methodology or provide case numbers, and Reuters could not replicate the department’s findings using a public version of its database. Court records reviewed by Reuters show sex-trafficking prosecutions have declined gradually over the past decade, a trend that sources partly attributed to the department’s shift toward more time-consuming cases against higher-profile offenders. But under Trump, prosecutors say that work has been further hampered by the focus on immigration enforcement, the loss of experienced staff and cuts to victim-support grants. One federal agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, said sex trafficking has not been a department priority since Trump took office and launched his mass-deportation campaign. Seven former prosecutors and three agents said that with fewer agents assigned to trafficking cases, many investigations have effectively frozen and new cases are rarely opened. “The administration is throwing sand in the gears in 10,000 different ways,” said Martina Vandenburg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, which has worked with partner organizations to petition for the release of a cooperating trafficking victim from immigration detention. One former prosecutor in the southern United States said her office’s trafficking investigations were crippled after several Homeland Security Investigations agents were reassigned to immigration raids. In other jurisdictions, officials said supervisors have had to compete for the small number of agents still available to work trafficking cases. Reassigning agents, sometimes to new cities, can disrupt fragile relationships with victims and witnesses who often lack stable phones or housing, causing cases to collapse, one federal agent said. In New England, one trafficking survivor’s case stalled after agents told her they had been diverted to immigration enforcement, according to a staffer at a local advocacy organization who worked with the survivor. The advocate, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the survivor’s identity, said such reassignments signal to victims that their safety is not a priority. The survivor was later forced back into sex work and no longer wants to work with federal authorities, the advocate said. An FBI spokesperson said agents shifted to immigration duties had continued working on other cases, including sex trafficking, and that the transfers did not eliminate their responsibility to investigate such crimes. The spokesperson did not address whether the reassignments contributed to the decline in prosecutions. Victim support grants delayed as trust erodes As staffing has thinned, so has the financial support system meant to keep victims stable enough to testify. The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs typically distributes about $90 million a year in grants to nonprofit organizations that provide emergency housing, food and mental health counseling to trafficking victims. Grant recipients told Reuters that some funding has been delayed or frozen as part of the administration’s broader spending cuts. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement that most grants from last year have been awarded, though he did not provide specific figures, and said the department is reviewing remaining applications to ensure they align with administration priorities. Alan Smyth, executive director of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Saving Innocence, said two federal grants totaling $700,000 were delayed for nearly a year. His organization survived the delay, but other groups told Reuters they have had to end programs or stop services entirely because of lost funding. Federal prosecutors have historically used T-visas, which grant legal immigration status to trafficking victims, as an incentive for victims to cooperate with investigations. The administration approved 354 T-visas in the first six months of the current fiscal year, about half the typical pace over the past decade, according to Department of Homeland Security data. More than 71,000 T-visa applications remain pending. Two former prosecutors said their U.S. attorney’s offices stopped supporting T-visa applications altogether. Serano said prosecutors and paralegals nationwide continue working with DHS to verify victims’ cooperation, though DHS makes the final decisions on visa applications. Several immigration attorneys told Reuters that clients actively cooperating in sex-trafficking investigations have been detained by immigration authorities, halting criminal cases. In Michigan, a Chinese woman who had been trafficked in California was detained by ICE despite having a T-visa application pending since 2022, said her attorney, Laura Berger. “If I can’t guarantee a victim won’t be locked up, how can I ethically tell them to cooperate with federal agents?” Berger said. The erosion of trust, combined with the loss of staffing, funding and institutional expertise, could have lasting consequences, said Jean Bruggeman, co-executive director of the anti-trafficking organization Freedom Network USA. “It’s hitting that tipping point where important pillars are starting to fall, which will bring down the entire anti-trafficking structure,” she said. “Rebuilding it could take years.”

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Microsoft China business

Microsoft Quietly Retreats From China After Weighing Full Exit in 2023

August 13, 2026 No Comments

Microsoft has shut at least 15 branch offices and joint ventures in China over the past five years, corporate filings show, as the company pursues what five people familiar with the matter described as a strategy of gradual retreat from the world’s second-largest economy. The technology giant considered leaving the Chinese market entirely in 2023, according to one of the sources, after some executives concluded the geopolitical risk outweighed the economic return. Microsoft currently has no plans to exit, the source stressed. China generated just 1.5% of Microsoft’s global revenue in 2024, the company said. The internal deliberations, which have not been previously reported, reflect a broader unraveling of trust between Washington and Beijing that has reshaped how American tech firms operate in China. Since 2017, Chinese authorities have pushed government agencies and state-linked firms toward domestic software, which officials consider more secure and which has grown increasingly competitive with Windows and Office. At the same time, U.S. export controls on advanced technology have limited Microsoft’s ability to expand its artificial intelligence and cloud computing operations inside China. Microsoft is not alone in reassessing its China exposure. Apple intends to manufacture most iPhones sold in the United States in India by the end of 2026. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk last month denied reports that his company was considering splitting off its China business. Why Microsoft stayed Microsoft ultimately chose to remain in China because it had built a profitable niche serving Chinese companies that need Western technology to run their overseas operations, according to three people familiar with the matter. TikTok owner ByteDance is among the clients relying on Microsoft’s services for that purpose. The company also views its China presence as essential to recruiting from the country’s deep pool of engineering talent, two of the sources said. Alain Crozier, who led Microsoft’s China operations until 2021, said the company has cultivated one of the deepest government relationships of any American tech firm. “Because of the geopolitics … some days it’s a little bit harder, but we never had a crisis,” Crozier said. A Microsoft spokesperson did not directly address questions about the company’s internal deliberations but said Microsoft operates within a regulatory environment that applies to every international supplier and remains committed to the Chinese market. The company said the current state of its China business reflects market competition, regulatory pressure and broader technological trends. ByteDance did not respond to requests for comment. A relationship dating to the 1990s Microsoft’s ties to Chinese leadership stretch back more than three decades. Co-founder Bill Gates made the first of many visits to China in 1994, when he met President Jiang Zemin, who reportedly urged him to study Chinese history. Over the following years, Microsoft co-invested in government-backed startup incubators and complied with censorship rules that Google, now part of Alphabet, refused to accept when it scaled back its China operations in 2010. That decision by Google drew praise from democracy activists but criticism from Bill Gates and then-Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who argued the search giant was overreacting to censorship and cyberattack concerns. By the mid-2010s, China had grown wary of Western technology following revelations that U.S. companies had assisted American intelligence agencies in surveillance operations. That suspicion posed a particular challenge for Microsoft, since most of China’s largest companies are state-owned or maintain close government ties. Microsoft’s answer was Windows 10 China Government Edition, a product whose release chief executive Satya Nadella personally negotiated with Chinese finance ministry officials, according to a person familiar with the talks. Several government agencies adopted the software, but it never achieved the broader traction Microsoft had hoped for, Crozier said. Around the time of that 2017 announcement, Beijing introduced procurement guidelines requiring government purchases to meet “safe and reliable” standards. No foreign operating system, including Windows, has been deemed compliant with those rules, Microsoft said. Non-compliance does not amount to an outright ban, but it subjects Chinese technology administrators using foreign software to added scrutiny, including extra security checks and approval requirements, said Paul Triolo, a Washington-based China tech policy analyst at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group. A review of six Chinese government procurement guides published between December 2023 and May 2026 found that five did not recommend Microsoft products. The sixth listed Windows 10 China Government Edition but noted its use was subject to unspecified “additional management requirements.” China’s tech and finance ministries did not respond to questions about the impact of these regulations on Microsoft. A second wind in the private sector American businesses in China, long frustrated by an uneven regulatory playing field, have grown more cautious as U.S.-China relations have soured. Just 52% of respondents to the American Chamber of Commerce in China’s most recent business climate survey named China a top global investment priority, down from 62% in 2019. While Microsoft’s push to become Beijing’s preferred technology vendor stalled, the company found new momentum with private companies. Firms such as ByteDance and fast-fashion retailer Shein depend on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to manage data in ways that satisfy foreign regulatory requirements, according to two company sources. Microsoft also gives Chinese enterprise clients exclusive access through Azure to Western AI models from providers such as OpenAI, which do not otherwise serve the Chinese market. By the mid-2020s, helping Chinese companies expand internationally had become Microsoft’s largest China-linked business line, according to three sources, though two cautioned that overall sales remain modest compared with the company’s global operations. Analysts have questioned the durability of that AI-driven business, since it depends on third-party suppliers like OpenAI and faces competition from cheaper domestic Chinese AI models such as Kimi. OpenAI and Shein did not respond to requests for comment. Losing the talent battle Microsoft has played a central role in developing China’s technology workforce since the 1990s, hiring commercially focused engineers and establishing Microsoft Research China to work on advanced technologies. Alumni of that lab now hold senior positions at Chinese AI firms SenseTime and DeepSeek. Recent political pressure has made it harder for Microsoft to hold onto that talent. U.S. export controls on chips and AI models have cut off Microsoft’s China-based engineers from cutting-edge technology. Microsoft president Brad Smith told U.S. lawmakers in 2023 that the company does not conduct research on quantum computing or other sensitive technologies in China. Microsoft weighed closing the research lab entirely but instead chose to relocate some of its top researchers, according to two people familiar with the decision. Since U.S. AI export restrictions took hold, the lab, now called Microsoft Research Asia, has opened new outposts in Vancouver, Singapore and Tokyo. Convincing engineers to leave China altogether has proven difficult. In 2024, Microsoft offered relocation packages to 1,000 top engineers, moving them to the United States or three other Western countries. Only about a third accepted, according to the sources. Microsoft confirmed it made relocation offers that year but declined to provide further details. Most of the engineers who turned down relocation instead moved to Chinese universities or domestic tech companies, where they can continue high-level research while staying close to family, the two sources said. Microsoft has faced talent poaching from domestic rivals before. The company’s attrition rate in China hovered around 17% in the mid-2010s, Crozier said, before Microsoft brought it below 10% by expanding new business lines, including its work with ByteDance, and offering staff opportunities to work abroad. “There is up and down in terms of the number of people and maybe some of the things that were developed over there,” Crozier said. “But we never change one inch of the fact that we will bring technology into China … for China, for Chinese companies.”

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Strait of Hormuz Iran Oman deal

Iran says Strait of Hormuz deal with Oman nears final stage, reopening still tied to U.S. conditions

August 9, 2026 No Comments

Iran said Sunday that an accord with Oman to establish new shipping lanes via the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages, but Tehran reiterated the strait will not reopen until the US meets a separate set of requirements it has laid out. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi claimed the country is close to finalizing a deal with Oman, which is across the Strait from Iran. Reopening of the waterway is not only dependant on the shipping-lane deal, he told Iran’s Mehr news agency, a position he had also expressed a day earlier. A U.S. official said Friday a deal between Iran and Oman was close and may soon reopen the strait. A waterway shut since February The Strait of Hormuz had transported one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before Iran sealed it down in retaliation for strikes by the U.S. and Israel. In late February, the United States launched air strikes on Iran on the grounds that they would prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons or threatening the area with missiles or proxy forces. A ceasefire between the US and Iran was put in place in June. But Washington reimposed a ban on Iranian commerce in the Gulf in July. Tehran said that blockade was a violation of the truce, which had already broken down by then. “The agreement which is being finalized with Oman will specify the shipping lines to be used after the strait is reopened,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Mehr. It does not establish a date for reopening on its own. That decision is still related to a separate list of requests Iran has made of Washington. Iran’s demands are not just about shipping lanes The reopening of the strait partly relies on U.S. reimbursement to Iran for what Araqchi called extensive attacks. Iran’s top national security body secretary Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr gave a longer list of conditions, including an end to U.S. threats against Iran, a stop to aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Yemen and Iraq, the lifting of the blockade and sanctions and the release of frozen Iranian assets. Iran and the U.S. are not currently engaged in direct discussions, and Araqchi said Tehran will not initiate such talks as Washington maintains what it deems a breach of the interim agreement agreed in June. Messages were being transferred between the two governments thru intermediaries, he said, but did not name which countries or officials were passing them. Washington would lift its embargo of Iranian ports when an agreement is announced that restores commercial shipping without hurdles, a U.S. official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity. Any efforts by the U.S. would be tied to steps by Iran, a sequencing that reflects the dispute over verification that has stymied other recent agreements in the region, the official said. Earlier sources told Reuters the evolving deal appeared bound to give Tehran control of ships going into the Gulf thru the strait, a set-up shipping companies have cautioned would be tough to implement. It’s unclear how that control would function alongside the new lanes Iran and Oman are completing, or how it would align with the U.S. conditions for ending the blockade. The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday Iran had assaulted a ship linked to its state oil business. Iran has not publicly commented on the claim as of Sunday. Houthi attacks deepen the regional picture Iran’s behavior in the Strait of Hormuz has been mirrored by a surge in attacks from the Houthis, the Tehran-aligned organization headquartered in Yemen, who have attacked shipping at another choke point between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Last month the Houthis imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, which they described as retaliation for what they described as a Saudi embargo on Yemen. Saudi Arabia has disputed the claim and continues to support Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The Houthis stated Sunday they hit Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery. The strike was carried out via drone, the group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed on X. A fire broke out at the refinery but was doused and no casualties were recorded, Saudi Arabia’s oil ministry said. Authorities were still dealing with the aftermath on Sunday and did not provide a cause for the fire, albeit the Houthi allegation points to the drone strike Saree reported. The Jazan refinery is located in southwest Saudi Arabia and processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The Houthis have already targeted Aramco operations there and in Yanbu on the Red Sea. The organization also launched strikes on the Red Sea port of Mocha, three sources in the Yemen-based administration in Aden told Reuters. A new defense accord in the background The Sunday incident came two days after Saudi Arabia signed a defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan, both mostly Sunni Muslim governments, in what Riyadh said was a response to escalating instability linked to the US-Israeli war on Shi’ite-led Iran. The new coalition does not target Iran or any other specific country, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said. Rather, he described it as a basic commitment among the three nations to support each other’s security, with the actual scope, method and extent of support to be hammered out in later talks should an assault occur. It is unclear whether Pakistan or Turkey would join any Saudi reaction to the Jazan attack or any additional Houthi attacks. Neither country mentioned Sunday’s incident precisely in a statement. Together, the developments suggest an area in which a number of fronts – the discussions over the Strait of Hormuz, the blockade in the Red Sea and the new Saudi defense deal – are on different but linked tracks. Iran’s position toward the U.S. remains conditional on demands much beyond the shipping-lane agreement with Oman. Its proxies in Yemen continue to assault Gulf energy facilities, even as Gulf states strive to codify new security arrangements among themselves. How those tracks connect and in particular whether progress on the Oman deal affects the speed or intensity of Houthi attacks is an open subject that neither Tehran nor Riyadh has publicly addressed.

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Netanyahu Gaza plan rejection

Netanyahu rejects Trump’s 15-point Gaza offer, Troops must stay until Hamas disarms

August 9, 2026 No Comments

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday dismissed US President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, telling his cabinet that Israeli forces would remain in the enclave until Hamas surrendered its weapons. Netanyahu’s declaration puts him at odds with a framework that the White House has treated as its signature achievement on the war, and it comes at a period when the Israeli prime minister has little political room to maneuver.“Israel rejects the 15-point document. Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting: “We will not make any withdrawal until Hamas is truly disarmed and we will continue to prevent threats against our forces and our citizens,” he continued. A row over sequence, not substance Both parties say they want to disarm Hamas. They’re different in the order of operations, and that difference has held up the plan for months now. The Board of Peace, the supervisory body established under Trump’s framework, said last month it had secured a commitment for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed factions in Gaza. Hamas said it would only turn up heavy weaponry if Israel stopped “all forms of aggression” and pulled its forces out of the land. Netanyahu’s cabinet remarks closed that door from the other end. Disarmament comes first,” he said, “and Israeli disengagement only once it is done, not before. Neither side has progressed since the disarmament agreement was announced last month, meaning the plan has been basically sitting in the same place for weeks despite the Board of Peace’s claim a deal had been struck. Israel has continued to target Gaza since the first ceasefire took effect last October, undercutting Hamas’s narrative that the current time is one in which Israeli aggression has ended. The paradox is why the two sides can’t agree on who goes first, more so than any single quote from either side. Hamas will be able to point to ongoing bombing to argue that Israel’s violence has not ceased. But Israel may point to Hamas’s complete arsenal as evidence that disarmament has not begun. Both statements are technically true in a narrow sense . And that is precisely why the framework has not moved forward . Trump’s proposal, and what’s left of it The Board of Peace would oversee the implementation of the 15-point plan released by Trump in September last year calling for Hamas’s disarmament, an Israeli troop withdrawal and rehabilitation of Gaza. The proposal was offered as a complete way out of the war, addressing not just the immediate question of weaponry and army locations but also the longer-term reconstruction of the area. When Hamas claimed last month it had agreed to a disarmament plan, Trump termed it “a monumental step toward lasting peace and security.” Netanyahu’s refusal on Sunday makes that story a lot more complicated. A plan Washington presented as acceptable is, according to Israel’s own prime minister, not something Israel currently plans to honor on the terms proposed. “It could not be some fictitious disarmament,” Netanyahu stated, without indicating what kind of verification he would consider real. He did not describe what, if any, process would persuade Israel that Hamas had in fact disarmed, rather than merely declared so. \”Discussions are in progress with U.S. officials,\” he said. “They have ideas, some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these issues,” he said, a comment that reads as much as a warning to his own coalition as to Washington. Netanyahu drew a public line between acceptable and unacceptable U.S. proposals, suggesting he’s open to negotiating details but not the current paper. That distinction leaves room for a modified framework without forcing Netanyahu to outright retract Sunday’s statement. Coalition arithmetic before an election Netanyahu’s comments are not unrelated to that coalition strain. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose faction is part of Netanyahu’s governing majority, said the proposal is “not acceptable” and wants a cabinet vote to withdraw Israel’s involvement in the framework entirely. Netanyahu has limited room for maneuver with concessions his far right partners could exploit to bring down the government, a threat Ben Gvir and allies have made before, with elections looming soon. In that light, Sunday’s denial looks less like a negotiation position aimed at Hamas, and more like a warning intended at Jerusalem. Netanyahu has not relented, it says, as coalition braces for vote Ben Gvir may still force For a Prime Minister heading into an election, the electoral cost of looking like he is making concessions to Hamas is likely to outweigh the diplomatic cost of publicly rejecting a US-brokered plan, at least in the short term. That assessment helps explain Netanyahu’s decision to lay out Israel’s stance so bluntly during a cabinet meeting rather than via quieter channels with US officials. Next steps Netanyahu did not specify how long Israel would wait or what would happen if Hamas does not disarm on Israel’s terms. He also did not say whether continuous Israeli strikes in Gaza, already at variance with Hamas’s demand that “all forms of aggression” halt first, will continue while the two parties remain apart on sequencing. The cabinet meeting ended with no vote on what to do next. Ben Gvir is still waiting for a vote to cancel the Gaza plan and Netanyahu will have to answer that one way or another, either maintaining the framework he just partially rejected or moving further toward the coalition partners pushing him to abandon it all together. But nearly a year after Trump unveiled the idea, the core question of who disarms first and who withdraws first remains exactly where it was: unsolved. Israel and Hamas have not agreed to a roadmap proposed by the Board of Peace. Israeli military are still in Gaza. Hamas has not given up its weapons. And with Israeli elections looming, the political incentives for Netanyahu are to stand firm, rather than reach a deal that could be used against him by his own coalition members. What comes next probably has less to do with the talks Netanyahu detailed with US officials than with the internal politics of his own government. If Ben Gvir manages to force a vote in the cabinet, Netanyahu might end up legally putting a stop to Israel’s involvement in a plan he has already rejected in content. If that vote is not held the current stand-off between Israel and Hamas – disarmament first by Israel, withdrawal first by Hamas – is likely to continue with neither side being forced to budge.

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Fraud Ledger White House

White House Launches “Fraud Ledger” Tracking Vance’s Anti-Fraud Task Force Wins

August 7, 2026 No Comments

The White House rolled out a new website Thursday called “The Fraud Ledger,” a public tracker for the fraud crackdown work led by Vice President JD Vance’s task force. The site describes its purpose in stark terms. “President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance are waging war on the fraudsters and scammers who have looted hardworking Americans for far too long,” the page reads. It invites visitors to follow “every action, every takedown, and every dollar recovered as part of the unrelenting effort.” According to figures posted on the site, the administration has uncovered nearly $230 billion in fraud and stopped $56 billion in fraudulent payments before they went out. A TASK FORCE TAKES SHAPE Vance convened the White House Task Force on Eliminating Fraud for the first time in March. The panel has since grown into a recurring forum where administration officials and lawmakers review cases and coordinate enforcement efforts across federal programs. White House spokesperson Olivia Wales framed the new website as an extension of that work in a post on the social platform X on Thursday. “President Trump and Vice President Vance are waging an all-out war on fraud, shutting down billions of dollars in taxpayer theft,” Wales wrote. She said Democrats “have refused to stop this epidemic of fraud,” and argued that the administration’s approach protects the programs fraud schemes target. “The Trump Administration is holding these criminals accountable and ensuring key federal programs remain viable for the Americans they were meant to support,” she added. Vance held the task force’s most recent session on Wednesday, gathering Republican members of Congress for a roundtable discussion at the White House. The vice president used the meeting to lay out his framing of fraud as a crime with two sets of victims. “Fraud is really a dual victim crime,” Vance told the group. He said the first victim is the American taxpayer footing the bill for stolen funds, and the second is the population of people who actually need the programs being defrauded, since fraud drains resources meant to reach them. Vance did not soften his language when describing the scale of the problem. “This is despicable behavior, and it’s something that we’ve allowed to go on for too long in the United States of America,” he said. A CALL FOR CONGRESS TO ACT Beyond the enforcement actions themselves, Vance used Wednesday’s meeting to press lawmakers to lock in the task force’s work through legislation. He argued that without formal codification, anti-fraud measures put in place by the administration could prove temporary, subject to reversal by a future White House or agency leadership. He also pointed out the partisan makeup of the room. “I see only Republicans surrounding us today,” Vance said. He noted that the task force had found cooperation outside Washington despite the room’s makeup on Wednesday. “We really have been able to work in some cases with Democratic governors and Democratic attorneys general on the anti-fraud task force, and we would love, I’m not necessarily holding my breath, but we would love to work with Democrats in Washington to codify some of the anti-fraud actions that we’ve taken and to take it to the next level,” he said. That distinction, between state-level cooperation and a lack of it in Washington, ran through much of Vance’s remarks. State officials from both parties have signed on to specific fraud investigations tied to their jurisdictions, according to Vance, even as national Democratic lawmakers have stayed out of the task force’s federal proceedings. WHAT THE LEDGER SHOWS The Fraud Ledger presents the administration’s enforcement totals in a running format, updated as the task force closes cases and recovers funds. The site’s stated dollar figures, nearly $230 billion in fraud uncovered and $56 billion in payments halted, cover the task force’s activity since Vance’s March launch meeting through the current update. The administration has not published a detailed case-by-case breakdown of how those totals were calculated, and the website’s framing leans heavily on cumulative numbers rather than itemized enforcement actions. That approach makes the ledger useful as a headline tracker of the task force’s stated impact, though it leaves specific verification of individual cases to whatever documentation the administration releases separately. The task force’s work touches federal programs across multiple agencies, spanning benefit payments, procurement contracts and other areas where fraud investigators have historically found exposure. Vance’s dual victim framing, taxpayers on one side and program beneficiaries on the other, has become the administration’s standard language for describing why it considers fraud enforcement a priority separate from routine government oversight. Wednesday’s roundtable adds to a pattern of recurring task force meetings since March, each drawing a mix of administration officials and members of Congress. Vance has used these sessions both to review enforcement progress and to build a case for the legislative follow-through he raised again this week. Whether that push gains traction with Democrats in Congress remains an open question. Vance’s own comments Wednesday suggested he does not expect quick bipartisan movement in Washington, even while pointing to cooperation at the state level as evidence that anti-fraud work can cross party lines outside the capital. For now, The Fraud Ledger stands as the administration’s public-facing summary of that broader effort, giving the task force a standing record it can point to as the initiative continues into its next phase.

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