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Vance says US has had 'good conversations' with Iran on finding deal to end conflict
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Vice President JD Vance offered measured optimism on Monday that a deal can still be struck to prevent President Donald Trump from following through on his threat to potentially order new strikes on Iran after the crucial midterm elections in the United States.
Vance sent a letter to Iran's security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, last week, but the White House has offered scant details about the contents of that correspondence. Trump told reporters that letter was focused on assisting Iran with "medical supplies and various things."
But Vance on Monday suggested there's reason to believe that the U.S. and Iran could still come to an agreement.
"We've had a number of good conversations with the Iranians," Vance told reporters on Monday when asked about the letter. "I actually just spoke with the president of the United States about an hour ago about this. Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We're going to keep on working at it."
Vance's comments came as the region remains on edge about the prospects of the U.S. resuming full-scale operations against Iran. The backchannel efforts are playing out as Israel and some Middle East allies lobby Trump on the way ahead in the 8-month-old war that's rattled global markets and wreaked havoc on Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for another wave of strikes on Iran after Tuesday's elections in the United States, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter.
A return to full-scale war with Iran could help Netanyahu to form an emergency government after he and his far-right allies lost their parliamentary majority in last week's elections. Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes and pushing for a deal with Iran.
The two officials said diplomatic efforts have made progress, with Qatari mediators holding two rounds of talks last week with Iranian officials. The two officials said the mediators are trying to advance a framework for Iran to cease its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in return for the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran's ports.
They said more talks are planned for this week. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified briefings they had received from American, and in one case Israeli, officials.
One official said Netanyahu was working with senior officials in the U.S. administration to persuade Trump to launch a quick but extensive air campaign and that the president does not appear to have made a decision.
Netanyahu pressed for strikes during a call over the weekend with Trump, who would not commit to taking military action, according to a person who was briefed on it.
Far from the campaign trail, Trump promotes his Reflecting Pool makeover before Election Day
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump stood silently Monday while triumphant music played as he held up a poster showing an image of the algae-clogged pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
It was the final moment of his last big speech before Election Day, far away from the campaign trail where Republicans were trying to make their case to voters to hang onto control of Congress.
The president's decision to spend the day before the pivotal midterms showing off his renovations in the nation's capital instead of barnstorming around the country was a puzzling way to pitch America on keeping his party in power.
"It starts just with the setting being bizarre and being very self-focused," said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist. "And then you had the pictures and the posters on the easels and all of that -- none of which help a single undecided voter in the last day of the elections move to the Republican Party."
Heye, a former communications director at the Republican National Committee, said Trump's Reflecting Pool speech was the "last thing" Republican candidates needed and added, "Maybe it doesn't register, but it sure doesn't help."
Trump, wearing a white "USA" hat and standing in front of the Reflecting Pool in Washington he renovated twice this year, appeared to be more focused on the cosmetic upgrades he undertook in the nation's capital than other achievements in his second term or the issues voters have said they're concerned about, like high prices.
"We have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that, you don't have enough time," Trump said.
The president repeated his false statements that the work at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was bedeviled by vandals, even though the Justice Department has acknowledged in court that the new blue liner he had installed on the pool peeled and detached because of a rushed repair job.
With a poster next to him showing the pool from above and the words "Back, and more beautiful than ever!" Trump detailed the work on the site, along with his efforts to beautify the rest of Washington. He explained why "American flag blue" was the right shade of blue to get "great reflectivity."
He mentioned the word grass about 20 times: Bermuda grass, new grass, old grass, beautiful grass, "inferior grass," grass that was vandalized, grass that was growing in the cracks of the president's helipad — also recently replaced — the fact that grass is "like the human being" and "has a life," grass that was donated and installed "with love" near the White House and things that look like grass but are not grass.
"That's not grass, that's algae," Trump said, holding up a photo of the reflecting pool when its water turned a sickly color of green.
Lindsay Clancy returns to court in a bid to dismiss charges she killed her three young children
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) -- Lindsay Clancy 's lawyer urged a judge Monday to either the dismiss the murder charges against her, or get on with the business of putting her back on trial.
This was the second time the Massachusetts mother has been in court since her first trial with ended with a deadlocked jury unable to agree whether she was legally responsible for killing her three young children. Jurors were split 11-1 in favor of acquittal when the judge declared a mistrial.
Clancy's defense team moved to dismiss the charges on double jeopardy grounds, based on an unusual argument that the judge should have removed the one juror who favored conviction, then allowed jury deliberations to continue.
Judge William Sullivan did not immediately rule on Monday. Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, implored him to decide quickly, and also pressed the Plymouth District Attorney to reveal soon whether he plans to try Clancy on murder charges again.
"I am not going to have this woman sit incarcerated for the next year, or two or three," Reddington said. Putting aside his sharp disagreement with the judge about the way the first trial ended, he said he wants Sullivan to preside over a second trial, if one happens. "I want a trial and I want it with you and I want it this spring."
Sullivan scheduled another hearing for Nov. 16 and suggested a retrial could begin in March.
Prosecutors said they intend to retry Clancy if the case proceeds, but haven't yet settled on whether they would pursue the same charges, or opt for a reduced charge that might be more palatable for the jury.
Clancy's lawyer has argued that she had postpartum psychosis and was unable to control her behavior when she killed her three children in 2023. Prosecutors have acknowledged that Clancy had mental health problems, but said she acted deliberately and understood her actions were wrong.
Kennedy Center names the 2026 honorees as Trump renovation battle moves the show offsite
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Kennedy Center said Monday that Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell would be recognized at this year's Kennedy Center Honors, which will be held away from the iconic performing arts venue for the first time as President Donald Trump battles with a federal court over his plans to renovate the building and add his name to it.
All of the nominees have had substantial careers in their respective fields. Mamet is among the most acclaimed playwrights of his time, known for his hard-boiled dialogue in "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "American Buffalo" and other works. Mandrell is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame whose many hits include "Years" and "Sleeping Single in a Double Bed" and Foster is among the most successful producers of the past 50 years, working with everyone from Chicago to Natalie Cole.
Anka has written or co-written such iconic songs as "My Way" and the theme to the "Tonight" show when Johnny Carson was host. Garcia's acting credits include "The Untouchables," "The Godfather Part III" and the HBO film "For Love or Country."
Several are either friendly with Trump or have been outspoken in support of conservative politics. Mamet told Fox News last year that he was once a "brain-dead liberal" who "discovered my conservative beliefs." Anka is a longtime friend of Trump who once rewrote "My Way," originally written for Frank Sinatra, with MAGA-themed lyrics. Foster has performed for Trump in the past.
The Kennedy Center Honors were established in 1978 and have been given to a broad range of artists. Until Trump's first term, presidents of both major political parties traditionally attended the annual ceremony, even when they disagreed politically with a given recipient.
Prominent liberals such as Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were honored during the administration of Republican George W. Bush, and a leading conservative, Charlton Heston, was feted during the administration of Democrat Bill Clinton.
Supreme Court rejects Trump administration push to set aside thousands of California ballots
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's push to force California to set aside thousands of ballots from people the federal government claims are noncitizens, a decision that came hours before the final day of voting in the pivotal midterm elections.
The high court refused to immediately intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state's voter rolls.
The swift rejection capped a string of losses for the president's effort to intervene in the election before the counting of ballots to decide who controls Congress in the last two years of his second term. No justices publicly dissented.
Several lower courts also rejected the Justice Department's push to set aside the challenged California ballots until the voters' citizenship status could be verified. In Alaska, a judge did not even hold a hearing before dismissing a Trump-ordered suit to prevent a possible Democratic Senate win.
The high court did not detail its reasoning, as is common in emergency decisions. The justices previously rejected Trump's push to restrict mail ballots around the country in September, even though the justices have sided with his administration in a series of other emergency docket appeals.
The Republican administration has prioritized identifying noncitizen voters this year, despite them being rare. California officials said the administration's list appeared to be filled with errors and that setting the ballots aside could effectively disenfranchise legal voters.
Also on Monday in Washington, another federal judge ruled against the administration's efforts to make last-minute demands of California election officials, finding they violated the U.S. Constitution.
"The Executive Branch has likely violated the Constitution's Elections Clause, which commits authority over election rules to the states and Congress alone," Chief Judge James Boasberg wrote.
The administration, for its part, said segregating the ballots was a modest request that would eventually allow legal votes to still be counted.
The administration's push has faced a remarkable series of losses in court, as well as criticism for waiting until a few weeks before the election to make its demands of California election officials with a list that even the Department of Justice admits is not entirely reliable.
Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against Harvard over federal demand for admissions data
BOSTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against Harvard University over its alleged failure to provide admissions records that the Justice Department had demanded to ensure the Ivy League school stopped using affirmative action in admissions.
The Justice Department said Harvard had "thwarted" efforts to investigate potential discrimination. It accused Harvard of refusing to comply with a federal investigation and asked a judge to order the university to turn over the records.
But U.S. District Judge Myong Joun concluded that the Justice Department didn't take the necessary procedural steps to obtain the data before filing the lawsuit. "Before taking enforcement action under the statutory framework, the agency must advise the recipient of its failure to comply and determine that compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means," Joun wrote.
But Joun also said the ruling does not end the dispute over the data.
"I decide a limited question: whether the Government has adequately established, at this stage and on the materials properly considered, that it satisfied the prerequisites to judicial enforcement invoked in this complaint," he wrote. "The ruling does not determine whether Harvard has discriminated, whether the agencies may lawfully seek appropriately defined applicant-level data, or whether Harvard may ultimately be required to provide such data."
Neither Harvard nor the Department of Justice responded to a request for comment.
The ruling is the latest setback against the Trump administration over its ongoing battle with Harvard. It has suffered defeats in the federal courts over everything from billions of dollars in funding cuts to a lawsuit accusing the university of antisemitism.
Trump officials have said they're taking action against Harvard over allegations of anti-Jewish bias on campus. Harvard officials say they're facing unconstitutional retaliation for refusing to adopt the administration's ideological views.