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Natalie Harp, special assistant to Donald Trump, continues to be the focus of media attention Thursday after an MS Now report revealed that she had worked at the White House for nearly a year without obtaining a security clearance.
Harp, a former One America News Network show host, has emerged as a key gatekeeper to the president. Her presence with Trump when the president left Air Force One as a decoy while sneaking on to another plane in a service cart – even as senior officials remained behind – drew attention.
Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator from Georgia, amplified that attention with comments at a rally Sunday in Atlanta. Speaking of Trump, Ossoff said: “He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job; he wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
A clip of his commentary went viral on social media, drawing attacks from the president’s defenders.
White House communications director Steven Cheung posted in reply on X: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics,” while White House spokesman Davis Ingle posted, “Jon Ossoff is a cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama. Nobody gives a shit what this lightweight loser says.”
Ossoff marveled at the reaction to his observations in an interview Wednesday with Laurence O’Donnell on MS Now. “It’s been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week,” Ossoff said. “These White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayer with immense power in positions of public trust. And whether it’s Natalie Harp printing out Donald Trump’s daily dose of delusion and flattery, or Peter Navarro steering taxpayer-funded loans to Trump family investments, or Pete Hegseth deluding the president daily into deepening this quagmire in the Middle East, no one cares about their feelings.”
The pile on continues: Rosie O’Donnell, a longstanding Trump antagonist filling in Wednesday night for Jimmy Kimmel, picked at the topic.
“That’s all I’m going to say about you tonight, sweetheart,” O’Donnell said of Trump. ”You got to realize it’s time to hang up your wig and let Natalie tuck you in. Time to go nighty-night!”
A White House meeting on cryptocurrency and is amplifying a spike in bitcoin values Thursday.
President Donald Trump – who disclosed $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency earnings from his family’s investments in 2025 – is pushing congress to pass the CLARITY Act, which would define cryptocurrency as a commodity and move much of its regulation to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Bitcoin – along with gold and other commodities – began rising sharply in value at 10:30 Wednesday morning when the US treasury department announced it would double its long-end bond buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation, supporting market liquidity. That set off a short squeeze in cryptocurrencies. Twenty-four hours later, bitcoin hovered around $71,500, an increase of about 10 percent in value.
“We need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act – a fair version of the Clarity Act,” Trump said in opening remarks at a summit held Wednesday on the legislation with cryptocurrency industry leaders. “It’s a very, very powerful structured legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else, will open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators.”
Thursday morning, the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee held its inaugural meeting to discuss the regulation of crypto assets, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets.
“America has long been the global hub of financial innovation,” said Chairman Michael S. Selig. “I look forward to meeting with the entrepreneurs, thinkers, and builders of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee to discuss ways emerging technologies and financial products are shaping our markets as we embark upon the new frontier of finance.”
The agenda includes discussion of agentic finance and the use of AI in derivatives markets, as well as the regulation of prediction markets like Kalshi.”
“Trump ordered the Pentagon to curtail Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, scaling back live-fire training. Officials warn reduced readiness and deterrence may result, while Kim Jong-un’s stance remains unchanged.
President Trump’s decision to curtail the military exercises came as allies question the U.S. commitment to longstanding alliances.
American and South Korean troops participating in the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises last year.Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
For years, the U.S. and South Korea militaries have participated in one of the largest military exercises in the world, with thousands of troops from both countries preparing for possible North Korea aggression.
On President Trump’s orders, the Pentagon curtailed this year’s exercises and scaled back some live-fire components of the drill, which were already underway.
Current and former military officials say the move is likely to undercut U.S. military readiness in the region at a time when allies are questioning the Trump administration’s commitment to longstanding partnerships and countering China.
The president’s decision is also unlikely to affect the person he hoped to sway: North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un.
The exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, usually run for 11 days and have sometimes included 17,000 or more U.S. troops and 50,000 South Korean troops. In past years, the sessions have featured some computer simulations carried out in a large bunker south of the capital, Seoul, intended to check the allies’ readiness to repel a North Korean attack.
This year, some 18,000 South Korean troops were to take part in Ulchi Freedom Shield. The Pentagon has not said how many American troops had been expected to participate.
While both countries have insisted that the exercises were defensive in nature, Mr. Kim has long called them provocative. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the drills as “a rehearsal for an aggressive war.”
The country conducted two ballistic missile tests off its east coast this month, vowing to “respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent.”
Mr. Trump seemed to agree with North Korea, saying in a post on Sunday that the country under Mr. Kim had been “unthreatening and respectful” while he has been president.
American troops have been through this before. Mr. Trump abruptly canceled the exercise in 2018 during his first administration, without notifying Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
At the time, Trump administration officials said they wanted to give negotiations meant to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions an opportunity to succeed. Mr. Trump met with Mr. Kim three times but ultimately failed in that goal.
Back then, officials said the military could weather one big interruption in the exercise schedule but that readiness would suffer if the drills lapsed for several years.
After Mr. Trump’s announcement on Sunday, the Pentagon declined to say which specific training events would be canceled, modified or conducted through computer simulation. But former commanders said two main components would be affected: the testing of high-level command problems and other issues, and training for large scale, on-the-ground live fire and troop maneuvering.
Both are valuable from a military readiness perspective, commanders said. A Pentagon official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said the American and South Korean militaries would continue training on their own before the exercise ends on Aug. 21, but that they would not train together as had been previously scheduled.
“Of course it hurts readiness,” said Victor Cha, the Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And readiness relates to deterrence. If the Chinese or North Koreans feel that U.S. deterrence is not as strong, they might think there are opportunities there.”
Mr. Cha also disputed the notion that canceling the exercises would help Mr. Trump to get a nuclear deal with North Korea, pointing to the 2018 talks that ultimately collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over disagreement about relief from U.S. economic sanctions and the scope of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.
Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, a retired top commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said that scaling back live-fire training hurts troops’ ability to hone their combat skills.
“It develops competence and confidence by training just as you would fight an adversary as a team,” General Scaparrotti said in an email. “The use of live rounds and rigorous training standards in training is the most realistic test of unit readiness.”
In a rambling social media post on Sunday, Mr. Trump complained that South Korea had not supported the Trump administration in its war against Iran. He also said the military exercises were expensive, “with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!).”
The estimated cost of this year’s exercise was $6.9 million, the Pentagon official said, adding that any savings resulting from the changes have not yet been determined. But former commanders said the vast majority of those costs had already been paid, for expenses like U.S. troop movements in and out of South Korea.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry appeared to be caught off guard by Mr. Trump’s announcement but pledged to continue coordinating with the United States on the military exercises.
As the war with Iran sinks into a quagmire, Mr. Trump is increasingly refocusing on North Korea, which is now a de facto nuclear power.
Mr. Trump posted a picture of himself with the North Korean leader on social media at least twice in recent months.
“Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!” Mr. Trump wrote alongside a photograph he posted on Saturday of their meeting at the border between North and South Korea in 2019.
Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he planned to meet with Mr. Kim sometime later this year, but he did not offer details. “I get along with Kim Jong Un very well,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s going to be fine. As long as we have a smart president, he’s going to be fine.”
Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s younger sister and close adviser, told state media on Wednesday that the country’s position toward the United States had not changed despite Mr. Trump’s decision to cut short the military exercises.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades. Contact him securely on Signal: @ericschmitt.36.
Helene Cooper is a Pentagon correspondent for The Times. She was previously an editor, diplomatic correspondent and White House correspondent.“
Left, French researcher Didier Raoult, and Dr Mehmet Oz, right. Composite: AFP via Getty Images, CNP/Shutterstock
A French researcher whose work was praised by Donald Trump and Dr Mehmet Oz during the Covid-19 pandemic published hundreds of papers with “substantial” ethical and legal concerns, according to a new analysis.
Raoult rocketed to the global stage in March 2020, when the novel virus was spreading unchecked and killing people across the world. He and several colleagues published research that claimed hydroxychloroquine – a drug used for malaria and certain autoimmune conditions – was found to be an effective treatment for Covid-19, especially in combination with the drug azithromycin.
Trump at the time called Raoult’s research on hydroxychloroquine a “gamechanger”, though many scientists disagreed and raised concerns about the quality of the research, including Dr Anthony Fauci, then a top Trump adviser.
Despite those calls for caution, Oz, who now heads the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, an agency responsible for $1.6tn in spending, echoed Trump at the time in calling Raoult’s work a gamechanger. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, made a high-profile visit to the institute and met with Raoult. Later, Robert F Kennedy Jr called Raoult’s work “powerful” and dedicated a book he wrote that blasted Fauci in part to Raoult.
The new findings further call into question the scientific judgment of current health leaders in the Trump administration, who have said they are committed to restoring what they call “gold-standard science” informing federal policy. A Republican-led committee of the US Senate recently voted to hold Fauci in contempt for pleading the fifth during a hearing about Covid-19’s origins.
A screengrab of a video posted to Dr Mehmet Oz’s Facebook page on 23 March 2020, showing him in conversation with Dr Didier Raoult. Photograph: Dr Mehmet Oz via Facebook
“If Oz had reviewed/read the study correctly he would have found many of the problems” that were raised about it, said Lonni Besançon, an assistant professor in data visualization at Linköping University in Sweden and a member of the international research team that did the new analysis, which was published this month in the journal Research Integrity and Peer Review.
Besançon said the now-retracted article was used to claim there was a cure for Covid, led to shortages of hydroxychloroquine and drove scientists to pour their attention into researching that drug rather than other promising leads. It also fueled conspiracy theories from people who argued the article was being attacked “because if there was a cure for Covid then they couldn’t sell their vaccines”, he said.
“A lot of time was wasted,” Besançon said. “It’s been a massively influential paper, and it’s also been used to push for an antivax agenda.”
Trump, Oz and Kennedy promoted the research
Fauci, who was a leading member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, was asked at a news conference with Trump on 20 March 2020 whether there was evidence hydroxychloroquine could be used to combat Covid-19. Fauci, standing with the president, replied, “The answer is no,” called such research “anecdotal evidence” and noted it was not done in a controlled clinical trial. He called for rigorous scientific research to show whether it would be both safe and effective.
But the next day, Trump cited Raoult’s research in a tweet, saying hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin “have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine” and saying he hoped they would be put in use immediately.
Two days later, Oz, then a TV personality and physician, appeared on Fox & Friends, where he said he was “flabbergasted” by Raoult’s research and urged the US government to procure the drug.
“I read the study. I was stunned. Literally, a jaw dropped. I didn’t know it was possible,” Oz said.
While Oz noted it had not been a randomized trial and said he was launching his own such trial to replicate Raoult’s findings, he also called the French work a “gamechanger”.
“The data is so strong, I completely understand why America wants to start taking these pills,” Oz said, before adding that more data was needed.
Publicly, Oz interviewed Raoult multiple times in March and April for his TV show.
Behind the scenes, Oz was emailing Trump administration officials to highlight the research, according to emails later obtained by a US House select committee on the coronavirus crisis. In them, Oz vouched for the quality of Raoult’s research.
“You should know that the French researcher confirmed clinical benefits but needs more data so will not release report for another 10 days. These findings offer hope to our people,” Oz wrote on 22 March. He called it a “potential pandemic solution” in an email to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Six days later, he wrote that Raoult had sent him updated research and that “the treatment appears safe and results are better than expected”.
Trump’s current health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, then leading the anti-vaccine activist group Children’s Health Defense, named Raoult among the “heroic” scientists to whom he dedicated his 2021 book, The Real Anthony Fauci. Kennedy’s book attacked Fauci for his stance toward hydroxychloroquine.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not return requests for comment about Kennedy’s and Oz’s promotion of Raoult’s work.
Widespread ethical problems
The team of researchers has been digging into the IHU’s work for years. They initially looked at 2,674 papers published by the institute between 1994 and 2024 and discovered various ethical concerns in 853 of them.
For example, the team noted that French law requires certain steps be taken when using human subjects in biomedical research in order to protect people from harm. The team estimates that at least 78 articles describe biomedical research “that appears not to comply with the applicable French law”, they wrote.
The team also found 343 articles in which no ethics approvals were ever recorded, dozens of approvals that appear to have been obtained retrospectively after the study began and repeated reuse of ethics approvals for different studies, among other issues.
They noted that while issues such as fraud and plagiarism often get more attention when it comes to research misconduct, ethical problems can undermine public trust in research and in the scientific process.
The findings have in the past few years led to 64 articles being retracted and 270 being tagged with an “expression of concern”, which can indicate that major and credible concerns have been raised about the article, the team wrote.
They called for additional review of the institute’s work “to ensure that the scientific record is corrected where appropriate”. It was critical of the institute as well as of Aix-Marseille University, which they said was largely responsible for overseeing the work there.
“These findings raise broader questions regarding the university’s governance and oversight mechanisms,” they wrote.
Besançon said millions of euros in research funds were “thrown out the window” due to the poor research practices at the IHU, and many students were improperly trained in scientific practices.
“For me, this is what’s important,” he said in an interview. “To make sure we can push for good, scrutinizable and responsible science.”
The university said in a statement that it “conscientiously and responsibly” took “all measures within its remit” from when it was first alerted to problems in 2020. It said it did its own investigation and transferred its findings to relevant authorities, then fully cooperated with the investigations. It said it also “engaged with scientific publishers” and has “continuously strengthened its prevention, support and oversight mechanisms”.
“Research ethics and research integrity are fundamental pillars of Aix Marseille University’s research policy and are at the heart of its commitment to responsible, rigorous and high-quality research,” it said.
Raoult retired in 2021. Though he responded to emails sent to him by the Guardian, he did not address questions about his research and the team’s analysis. In the past, he has stood by his research and criticized decisions to retract his studies. He told Science magazine in 2024 that he followed ethical regulations.
“Electric car sales are on track to hit record highs this year, with 29 percent of all new cars purchased around the world expected to be either purely battery-powered models or plug-in hybrids, according toa recent report from the International Energy Agency. That’s a sharp increase from just 4 percent in 2020.
The boom in sales was somewhat unexpected. Analysts had predicted a slower market for electric vehicles this year — until the U.S. war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused oil and gasoline prices to spike. That has led to a frenzy of electric car sales in many unexpected corners of the globe.
In South Africa, sales of electric cars more than quintupled in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. In Laos, imports of battery-powered vehicles from China are soaring. And in countries as different as Australia, Colombia and South Korea, the E.V. share of total new car sales has nearly doubled since fighting in the Middle East began.
Electric vehicle registrations continue to rise
Based on April-July average market share
Change in average E.V. share of sales
Ukraine’s E.V. tax exemption ended in January, and conflict has damaged charging infrastructure.
Some countries, like France, Australia and Colombia, saw E.V. market share grow more in the past year than the five years prior.
Percentage point change since 2025
Note: Electric vehicles exclude plug-in hybrid models. Vehicle categories vary by country.Source: Government and industry data compiled by Robbie Andrew, senior researcher at CICERO Center for International Climate Research.
The rise of electric vehicles is upending international car markets. Total sales of traditional cars with internal combustion engines have been in a steady decline, and this year, they’re expected to reach their lowest level since the early 2000s.
What makes the surge in electric car sales especially striking is that E.V. purchases have actually declined this year in both China and the United States, the world’s two largest automobile markets.
In China, which accounts for roughly half of all E.V. sales worldwide, a weakening economy and reduction in government subsidies led to a drop in overall purchases this year. (While electric vehicles improved their market share, the total number of cars sold declined in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2025.) China still has roughly as many electric vehicles on the road as the rest of the world combined, a trend that has noticeably curtailed the nation’s oil use.
The United States also saw a dip in sales this spring after Republicans in Congress phased out a $7,500 tax credit for electric cars last year. The Biden administration had pushed to expand the credit to help fight climate change, since electric vehicles produce fewer emissions than their gasoline- or diesel-powered counterparts.
A widening E.V. gap in the world’s largest car markets
Electric vehicle market share
United States
Tax credit ends
Hormuz closure
China
Direct subsidies end
Tax exemption reduced
Note: Electric vehicles exclude plug-in hybrid models. Vehicle categories vary by country.Source: Government and industry data compiled by Robbie Andrew, senior researcher at CICERO Center for International Climate Research.
Yet higher oil prices have pushed customers to go electric in many other markets.
Since the Iran war began in February, the price of Brent crude, a global benchmark for oil, has increased more than 25 percent. Over that timeframe, E.V. sales have roughly doubled in Australia, Brazil, India and South Korea compared with the same period in 2025.
Car sales fluctuate for a variety of reasons — including government policies, economic conditions and the availability of new models — but there is good reason to think that at least some of this year’s E.V. boom is related to the spike in the price of oil and gasoline. Online searches for electric vehicles have increased significantly since the war began, according to an analysis by BloombergNEF, with some of the biggest increases in countries that have seen the largest rise in fuel prices.
Andrew Grant, an analyst at BloombergNEF, said that some of the increase in sales this spring could be consumers who had already been planning to buy an electric car and simply sped up their purchases. Still, he said, “as we see sustained or higher oil prices, you probably will get higher E.V. sales than what you might have seen otherwise.”
Where electric vehicle sales have surged
Largest year-on-year gains in E.V. market share based on available registration data
Singapore
Uruguay
France
Slovenia
South Korea
Australia
New Zealand
Colombia
Note: Selection includes countries with available registration data. Electric vehicles exclude plug-in hybrid models. Vehicle categories vary by country.Source: Government and industry data compiled by Robbie Andrew, senior researcher at CICERO Center for International Climate Research.
More than a dozen governments have also announced new policies to encourage electric vehicle adoption since the conflict began, as countries have sought to curb their imports of expensive oil. Ireland and the Netherlands introduced programs to encourage drivers to trade in their older combustion-engine vehicles for electric models. Chile provided incentives for buses and taxis to go electric. Spain extended electric vehicle tax credits for consumers. China has set new goals to electrify its trucks.
“The crisis has clearly reinforced the case for E.V.s as a way to address energy security and fuel cost concerns,” the International Energy Agency said in a report last month. The agency noted that vehicles on the road account for roughly half of the world’s oil use.
Even if sales have slowed in China, the growing popularity of electric cars worldwide has been a boon for the country that produces more of them than anywhere else. Chinese companies have already exported roughly 2.4 million electric vehicles in the first half of this year, nearly as many as they did in all of 2025, according to the I.E.A.
China’s electric car exports now far outstrip all U.S. car exports
Chinese E.V. exports
All U.S. passenger vehicle exports
Hormuz closure
Note: Chinese passenger E.V. exports include plug-in hybrid passenger cars.Source: Ember, United States International Trade Commission.
Although policymakers in Europe and the United States have eyed China’s growing dominance of the global car market with alarm, many countries have welcomed low-cost Chinese electric vehicles as a way to save money on fuel.
In Argentina, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and South Africa, imported Chinese models make up more than 80 percent of electric car sales. Since the war began, a number of countries, including Cambodia and Kenya, have temporarily slashed tariffs on imported electric vehicles. In Laos, the government went further and barred imports of gasoline-powered cars for the rest of 2026 while cutting taxes on electric cars — leading to a rush of Chinese E.V.s.
One big question is what would happen to global E.V. sales if the conflict in Iran stopped and the Strait of Hormuz were reopened, leading to a drop in global oil prices.
In the short term, electric car sales could slow somewhat if drivers are no longer fretting as much about the price of gas. But over the long run, many analysts think that battery-powered vehicles will continue to win out.
Currently, in many car markets, an electric car is more expensive to purchaseupfront than a comparable gasoline- or diesel-powered model, which tends to be the biggest consideration for most consumers. But that could change within the next three to five years if battery prices continue to fall, Mr. Grant of BloombergNEF said. (Batteries are typically the most expensive part of these vehicles.)
“Oil prices will rise and fall, but the fundamental economics of batteries becoming cheaper, in our view, means that more E.V.s will be sold over time,” Mr. Grant said.
At the same time, even with higher upfront costs, electric vehicles tend to be cheaper to operate over their lifetimes, thanks to lower fuel and maintenance costs. That’s a bigger consideration for some people, such as ride-sharing drivers who might drive three to five times as much each year as an ordinary driver. Those drivers are already adopting electric vehicles at a somewhat higher rate, Mr. Grant said.“
