Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at reduced U.S.-South Korean military exercises, White House threats on Iran and Oman, and a renewed push for Israel-Hamas peace talks.
Downsizing Drills
Joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises were just getting started early Monday when the White House issued a shocking about-face. Mere hours into the event, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Defense Department to scale back the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, citing Seoul’s alleged failure to adequately help the United States combat Iran and his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at reduced U.S.-South Korean military exercises, White House threats on Iran and Oman, and a renewed push for Israel-Hamas peace talks.
Downsizing Drills
Joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises were just getting started early Monday when the White House issued a shocking about-face. Mere hours into the event, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Defense Department to scale back the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, citing Seoul’s alleged failure to adequately help the United States combat Iran and his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The U.S. president also claimed that South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said “No thanks!” when asked to join the United States in what Trump called the “denuclearization” of Iran.
Washington has previously viewed Ulchi Freedom Shield as an opportunity to reinforce the U.S.-South Korean alliance as the “linchpin for regional peace and security” and to reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.”
However, Monday’s downsizing instead transformed the annual event into another instance of the White House punishing an ally for not joining the Iran war and instead siding with an authoritarian leader who has historically been an adversary of the United States.
Ahead of this week’s drills, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused U.S. and South Korean forces of plotting more provocative exercises for later this year. Calling the drills a “rehearsal for an aggressive war,” Pyongyang vowed to respond with a “new level of a deterrent,” which would likely include more ballistic missile tests in nearby waters.
Experts suspect that Trump’s decision to reduce the scale of Ulchi Freedom Shield was not only a direct response to that threat but also likely part of a larger effort to convince North Korea to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks that broke down in 2019. South Korea similarly expressed such hope on Monday, stressing wishes that Trump and Kim’s “friendly relationship” lead to “meaningful dialogue” about the security of the Korean Peninsula.
Yet such engagement is unlikely unless the White House is prepared to offer major concessions, which Kim said in September 2025 would have to include the United States dropping “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea. In recent years, Kim has expanded Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, accelerated weapons testing, prioritized cooperation with Russia and China, and shunned any talks with Washington and Seoul.
Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, Aug. 18: Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing.
Wednesday, Aug. 19: New 50 percent U.S. tariffs on roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian goods go into effect.
Sunday, Aug. 23: Kazakhstan holds early parliamentary elections.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa concludes a weeklong state visit to China.
What We’re Following
Time’s up. A 60-day window for the United States and Iran to reach a peace deal expired on Monday without any agreed-upon curbs to Tehran’s nuclear program. Instead, Trump marked the deadline by demanding that Iran give up its war ambitions. “They should put up the white flag of surrender,” Trump told Fox News on Monday.
U.S. and Iranian officials agreed in June to an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts” until a final deal could be determined within 60 days. Weeks later, though, the White House declared that the truce was “over,” prompting Tehran to similarly suspend the agreement. On Monday, Trump maintained that the “number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon.” However, experts say that the war has instead transformed into a battle over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran remains in talks with Oman about control of the strategic waterway. Tehran has previously refused to negotiate over Hormuz with anyone but Muscat; the two countries sit on either side of the strait, and Iran has proposed that they should therefore be allowed to exert their authority over commercial shipping in the area.
Trump, though, shared a different opinion on Monday. “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them,” Trump told Fox News, threatening direct strikes on Muscat if it impeded U.S. talks or operations. Such military action would mark a drastic escalation in the rapidly expanding regional conflict and likely prompt fierce outcry from Persian Gulf neighbors.
Rare peace talks. White House advisor Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, just one day after Kushner held rare, hourslong talks with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt. The dialogues aimed to break a recent impasse in U.S.-mediated negotiations to end the war in Gaza.
Under the 15-point, U.S.-proposed road map, Hamas must begin total disarmament while Israel withdraws its troops from the Palestinian territory. But Hamas’s refusal to relinquish its weapons and Israel’s continued encroachment into Gaza beyond the agreed-upon cease-fire line have stalled peace talks for months. However, hopes appeared to rekindle last month, when Trump’s Board of Peace announced that it had convinced Hamas to agree to the framework.
Such optimism was short-lived, though. Last week, Netanyahu rejected the proposal, arguing that the militant group must completely disarm before Israel agrees to pull back any of its forces. To address this, Kushner and Netanyahu reportedly discussed putting a U.S. general in charge of verifying Hamas’s disarmament. It is uncertain if the militant group will agree to such terms.
Wrong number. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham appears to have been duped by an individual impersonating a senior Trump advisor. Politico reported on Monday that Burnham exchanged a “few messages” with someone pretending to be White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before growing suspicious of the other person. It is unclear what the two individuals discussed.
One official claimed on Monday that the messages were “of no significance,” and the BBC later confirmed that Burnham never had a verbal conversation with the prankster. “We do not comment on national security matters,” Downing Street told Politico in a statement.
Still, the incident has reignited fears that Wiles’s devices could have been hacked—again. Last May, CBS News reported that one or more individuals had accessed her personal cellphone to contact top officials. The White House and FBI quickly launched an investigation into the matter, as U.S. senators, governors, and business executives reported having received texts and phone calls from someone pretending to be her. But on Monday, Washington denied that the incident with Burnham was connected. “This incident had nothing to do with the Chief of Staff’s devices being hacked,” a White House official said.
Odds and Ends
Puppy love was in the air this weekend with two major festivals dedicated to man’s best friend. On Saturday, Lithuania held its fifth annual Corgi race, drawing 150 competitors (and their humans) from nine countries. For the first time, that included a participant from Wales, where the breed originated. Meanwhile, Catholic dog owners around the world brought their four-footed companions to church on Sunday to celebrate St. Roch’s Day, which honors the patron saint of canines. Bolivia held a particularly large celebration, and it looked like a barking-good time!
