Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the U.S. will impose the toughest sanctions in history on Iran, after President Trump promised to wage “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.” Bessent told CNBC that U.S. economic pressure would eliminate the need for return to direct combat with Iran. He said tough new sanctions would “collapse” Iran’s government, and warned other nations could face severe economic penalties if they continue to trade with Iran.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: “We are going to all of our allies, and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world. And we are going to them and saying, 'You are either with us or against us.'”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the threat of new sanctions as “illegal and inhumane.”

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been plagued by low morale; faulty plumbing; poor-quality, rationed meals; and shortages of basic supplies. The Lincoln is reportedly heading home to San Diego after a record-setting deployment of more than 270 days at sea.

In Yemen, Houthi fighters and government forces have traded dozens of attacks, raising fears that Yemen is sliding back into full-scale civil war for the first time since a U.N.-brokered peace deal in 2022. Government forces claimed 81 attacks over 24 hours, while Houthi fighters said they’d successfully used drones to strike an airport and an oil facility in Saudi Arabia.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis is deepening as more than 200,000 people have been newly displaced across the Kordofan region due to intensifying attacks between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Drone strikes have targeted critical water and power infrastructure in the city of El Obeid. Mass floods in North Darfur have also compounded the displacement crisis with torrential rains damaging hundreds of homes.

In Tunisia, hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of the capital Tunis on Thursday calling for the ouster of authoritarian President Kais Saied, the release of jailed opposition activists and journalists, and the restoration of democracy. The protests come as Tunisia faces deteriorating public services, an affordability crisis and a shortage of some basic supplies and medicines. Many of the protesters chanted, “The people want the fall of the regime,” a popular refrain during the Arab Spring uprising that ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Moataz Marzouki: “We have gone back to a state where people are afraid to speak the truth or to defend their rights. We fear differences of opinion. We fear debates and discussions. Personally, I say we have returned to the same concepts that existed during Ben Ali’s regime. It’s the exact same story. We’ve returned to the concept of people fearing the ruler, and we’ve gone back to many ideas that led absolutely nowhere.”

In Mali, a Russian-controlled paramilitary force faces accusations that it carried out the summary execution of nine civilians, including four children, during a raid on a village in the central region of Mopti in July. According to Human Rights Watch, about 100 fighters with the Russia-backed Africa Corps, accompanied by several Malian soldiers, broke into homes, dragged people out and separated men and boys for beatings and interrogations. They reportedly killed six civilians who tried to flee, and detained and executed three others. Since 2021, Mali’s military junta has relied on Russian mercenaries in its fight against Islamist armed groups.

In the occupied West Bank, large groups of armed Israeli settlers stormed Palestinian homes in the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, earlier today, killing a young Palestinian man and leaving a 70-year-old with serious gunshot wounds. Survivors say the settlers set fire to at least one home. Elsewhere, Israeli settlers set fire to a quarry in the South Hebron Hills overnight, causing severe damage to excavators, bulldozers and stone-cutting equipment. The United Nations reports attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have reached an all-time high in 2026, with an average of more than six attacks per day, as the Israeli government continues to approve new illegal settlements. After headlines, we’ll go to the Palestinian village of Qusra to speak with Loui Ridi, a Palestinian American who flew to the occupied West Bank on Monday to help relatives defend the family home, which Israeli settlers have surrounded for more than a week.

In California, progressive Democrat Aisha Wahab has won a special election to fill the congressional seat vacated by disgraced Representative Eric Swalwell, who quit amid sexual misconduct claims. In 2018, Wahab became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the U.S.; she’ll now be the first Afghan American U.S. congressmember, representing parts of the East San Francisco Bay until the new Congress begins in January. This is Aisha Wahab speaking to supporters on election night.

Rep.-elect Aisha Wahab: “We saw a lot of negative ads distorting our record” —

Supporter: “Shame!”

Rep.-elect Aisha Wahab: — “talking about us in a negative way, that we’re not good enough or we’re not American enough, and the fact that because I’m an Afghan American, because I’m a Muslim American, because I’m a woman of color, because I’m relatively young, that we don’t belong. And the voters of this district spoke out.”

Aisha Wahab won with 53% of the vote against Democrat Melissa Hernandez. Polls had shown Wahab with a double-digit lead in early August, before AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured over $6 million into negative ads and mailers targeting her. Meanwhile, AIPAC and its super PACs channeled at least $3 million to Hernandez’s campaign, according to Politico. They will face off again in November to decide who will represent the district in the 120th Congress beginning in January.

FBI agents seized a cellphone and laptop from former Congressmember Eric Swalwell after he was stopped at the San Francisco airport Saturday. The following day, federal agents also searched Swalwell’s home in Washington, D.C., as part of a civil rights investigation into allegations of sexual assault. Swalwell is also facing probes by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. CNN reports at least four women who’ve accused Swalwell of serious sexual misconduct have been contacted by the FBI as part of that investigation.

In more election news, Reuters reports a handful of billionaires and companies are driving record levels of spending on congressional contests ahead of November’s midterm elections, with crypto, gambling and artificial intelligence firms fueling a flood of campaign cash. So far, U.S. corporations have spent over a half a billion dollars on U.S. House and Senate races. That already exceeds the previous record of $461 million spent by corporations during the entire 2024 election cycle, and does not include millions of dollars in additional contributions made by “dark money” groups that hide the identities of their donors.

President Trump is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, today to support the campaign of Republican Senator Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill the vacancy left by the sudden death of her brother Lindsey Graham in July. Darline Graham faces Republican Congressmember Ralph Norman in a special Senate runoff on Tuesday. Critics have called Graham “dangerously unqualified” after her poor performance at a debate earlier this week.

Greta Van Susteren: “Senator, are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? If so, why?”

Sen. Darline Graham: “I’m sorry. Could you repeat the question?”

Greta Van Susteren: “Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? And if so, why or how?”

Sen. Darline Graham: “I’m just going to be honest here: I’m not on national security that — I’m not that informed on national security, so — but I do support the military.”

The Trump administration has deported 20 immigrants to Liberia as part of a new third-country agreement that will see the West African nation receive up to 1,200 immigrants — with no ties to Liberia — removed from the United States. The first group arrived at the Roberts International Airport outside the capital, Monrovia, on Thursday. As part of the deal, the U.S. has reportedly agreed to extend visitor visas for Liberians from 12 to 36 months, according to The Guardian, and pledged some $124 million in assistance. Immigrants deported to Liberia will include people from Latin America and the Caribbean.

In related news, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports ICE is seeking to deport an Iranian woman to the Central African Republic, a country to which she has no ties and which the U.S. State Department has deemed too unsafe for travel. She is currently detained at the Stewart ICE jail in Georgia.

In Texas, a minor league catching coordinator for the San Diego Padres was detained by ICE at an El Paso airport as he attempted to travel back home to Arizona. Oswaldo Pirela is originally from Venezuela and has a pending asylum claim and valid work authorization. Pirela lives in Phoenix with his wife and two U.S.-born daughters. He previously played for the Texas Rangers’ minor league team. His brother, Jorge Pirela, wrote on social media, “The people who have worked and lived alongside him can speak to his character, his work ethic, and the positive impact he has had on those around him.”

The Department of Homeland Security is defending harassment tactics deployed against people who’ve criticized the agency’s deadly crackdown on immigrants. That’s the claim at the center of a First Amendment lawsuit filed by David Streever, a U.S. citizen who was on a trip to Finland when two ICE agents showed up at his home in Rochester, New York, in June. The agents reportedly presented his wife with a “warning notice” due to an email Streever had sent months earlier to former ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons comparing him to a Nazi and calling him “a monstrous human being.”

The New York Times is reporting that the owner of a major Dominican sugar producer accused of forced labor at one of its plantations has close ties to President Trump. Central Romana’s owner, José Fanjul, a Cuban American businessman known as Pepe, donated to Trump’s 2024 campaign and his White house ballroom. Just weeks after Trump returned to office, the Trump administration lifted a measure that had prevented the company from shipping its product to the U.S. On Tuesday, the Corporate Accountability Lab, an independent nonprofit, issued a report finding the company is still responsible for abusive conditions. The report found many of the plantation’s workers are of Haitian descent and face poverty wages, excessive overtime, and intimidation and threats from management.