Aurum Resources (AUE:AU) has announced Aurum Hits High-Grade Gold at Napie, Cote d’Ivoire
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Modern society has a metals problem. The demands of modern consumer culture, the energy transition and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have created a dilemma.
As demand rises, the supply of many metals is at a bottleneck brought about by a number of factors, from government red tape to civil unrest, as well as lack of capital expenditures leading to fewer new discoveries and mines.
On top of this, mining companies focused on essential metals like copper are facing additional challenges, as in many cases the easy discoveries have already been made and existing mines are seeing declining grades, causing further constraints to supply.
BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) Digital Officer Mikko Tepponen suggests that the very technologies that rely on metals and mining can be the answer in his presentation at the 2026 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference.
Addressing data fragmentation in exploration
Once companies open up capital expenditures to the exploration side of the mining sector, several questions arise, most notably: Where are the minerals?
At its core, exploration relies on the geosciences, with a geologist in the field, sampling rocks, conducting surveys and using the data gathered to estimate where the best place is to put a drill for a look below the surface.
Mining is a data-driven enterprise, and depending on the project, the information can come from a range of methods, from modern techniques to historic observations, meaning the data is fragmented across a variety of sources and formats.
AI and machine learning can be good at processing and interpolating large quantities of information. However, data accessibility creates another roadblock.
“Across our industry, vast volumes of exploration data are sealed in archive rooms, and legacy systems can’t read through third-party data sets,” Tepponen said. “That data is neither structured, searchable nor interoperable. That means AI cannot make easy sense of it, and in many cases, that data was never extracted.”
For Tepponen, one of the challenges the mining industry needs to overcome is data fragmentation. Without enough data or proper information, there is an increased risk of making the wrong exploration decisions.
“Time matters because capital is finite. Drill meters are expensive, and decisions about capital allocation have multi-year impacts down the line,” he said.
The way BHP has implemented a data-centric approach is building a central data platform that integrates the decades of exploration data, standardizes it and makes it accessible through a central team within the company.
Tepponen says the platform supports 52 standardized core geoscience types, backed by more than 100 years of data, helping its exploration teams save months of time.
“Our geoscientists can access more than 4 million drill hole cores and 9,000 geophysical surveys through one portal,” he added.
Using BHP’s in-house AI extraction tool, one team of geoscientists obtained data from thousands of drill holes from 30,000 legacy document records. They then used the central data platform to combine that with modern drilling data.
According to Tepponen, the team completed the work in a few hours, while doing so manually would have taken months, and results were higher quality than the previous method.
However, he stressed that the integration of AI into its workflow wasn’t about replacing geoscience teams, but about “amplifying the work of geoscientists by creating a digital tool that enables them to focus on higher value.”
Additionally, the information in the platform is not limited to BHP’s data. Tepponen explained that the entire system is built on an open-source database designed to break down data silos and enable cross-sector collaboration.
Using targeted optimizations to avoid disruptions
While exploration poses a bottleneck to the development of new projects for future supply, disruptions to existing operations significantly impact current output.
It’s often impossible to predict major events like extreme weather, civil unrest or regulatory changes. However, operators can foresee some disruptions that result in hundreds of hours of downtime throughout the industry every year.
Tepponen outlined one persistent problem: oversized rocks and foreign objects making their way through processing plants.
“If an uncrushable rock or piece of metal gets into the crusher, it can cause blockages, damage belts and create significant downtime,” he said. “If it travels downstream, it can damage equipment and create critical bottlenecks.”
In Western Australia, BHP employs a hub-and-spoke model that connects five mines to a central processing facility. If one of the hazards disrupts operations at the facility, it can affect operations at the mines connected to it.
Additionally, fixing these issues exposes maintenance teams to higher-risk tasks, so eliminating the problem in the first place improves both productivity and safety.
Tepponen explained that historically, workers would be used to identify the hazards before they were loaded onto the truck, but once they reached the conveyor, they became much harder to remove.
The company now employs a real-time monitoring system that detects objects, alerts controllers and can automatically stop the conveyor.
“These are actually very simple technologies available commercially off the shelf. Cameras and machine learning control systems applied to a real world operational constraint,” he said.
In the prior three years, these incidents had caused over 1,000 hours of downtime, according to Tepponen. However, since it installed the monitoring system, the company hasn’t experienced any major disruptions or destruction events caused by oversized rocks, a change that he said amounts to hundreds of thousands of metric tons per year of increased processing.
“It’s a small system-level optimization that can deliver outsized returns on the AI journey. This is not a massive program. This is identifying simple constraints, applying proven technology,” he said, and emphasized the process of controlled testing, iteration and then deploying at scale. ‘That’s how systematic innovation actually happens.’
Testing scenarios with digital twin simulations
In his third use case example, he turned to BHP’s semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill at its Escondida operation in Chile, at which differing particle size and hardness in ore feed was impacting production.
The company used AI to create a digital twin of the value chain, which included everything that was known about the operation, such as ore body knowledge, processing behavior and operational constraints.
“That digital simulation enabled scenario testing and gave us the ability to inform blasting and blending strategies to predict granularity,” Tepponen said, noting that monthly production losses attributed to the problem fell by around 70 percent.
“The lesson, when the ore body knowledge is connected directly to the processing decisions, the system becomes more stable and predictable.”
BHP has since applied the approach to other operations, including ones in Australia and Chile.
“The Gen AI integration is multicultural, so non-technical users and the technical users can run scenarios in their first language,” he said, an aspect that he said is very important for the local companies at its operations.
Building foundations, collaboration key to AI usefulness
Tepponen was emphatic that AI alone wasn’t a “superhero.” BHP needed to specifically design these AI platforms in order to achieve these results.
“One of the most important lessons we have learned is we don’t actually get value from AI by starting with AI. The value comes from the foundations, consistent data standards, interoperability. You need to start at the bottom and make your way to the top.”
Tepponen also stressed the value of collaboration, noting that companies tend to be protective of their intellectual property, but opportunities are being missed that could be mutually beneficial.
“The hard truth is, no company can solve this problem of data fragmentation and system integration,” he said, and the industry would benefit from a collaborative approach on standards, interoperability and data throughout the value chain.
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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The Justice Department’s endeavor to break up Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, has officially made its way to the courtroom.
The antitrust case, which began with jury selection Monday, is unfolding in federal court in New York. Opening statements are scheduled to start Tuesday, with the trial expected to last six weeks.
The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by the Justice Department and dozens of state attorneys general, as well as Washington, D.C., alleges that Live Nation has illegally dominated the live concert industry by monopolizing ticketing, concert booking, venues and promotions.
The complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses the company of engaging in ‘anticompetitive conduct’ that leads fans to pay more in fees, artists to get fewer opportunities to play concerts and venues to have limited choices for ticketing services.
Ticketmaster has for years been the target of scrutiny by music fans who reported frustrations with buying tickets through the platform.
Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists and owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America. And through Ticketmaster, the lawsuit says, it controls around 80% of major concert venues’ ticketing — as well as a growing share of the resale market.
“Through interconnected agreements associated with Live Nation’s various roles as ticketer, promoter, artist manager, and venue owner,” the complaint says, “Live Nation has created a feedback loop that pushes ticketing and ancillary fees higher while allowing Live Nation to be on all sides of numerous transactions and thereby double-dip from the pockets of fans, artists, and venues.”
Here’s what else to know.
Attempts to advocate for ticketing reform have spanned decades. The rock band Pearl Jam tried to push the issue forward 30 years ago when its members testified before Congress, saying Ticketmaster had refused to agree to low concert ticket prices and fees. The case was dismissed a year later, and Ticketmaster’s dominance has persisted over the decades that followed.
But frustration over Ticketmaster began to boil over when it incurred the wrath of one of the country’s largest fan bases: Swifties, aka followers of Taylor Swift.
In late 2022, overloaded presale queues for the domestic leg of Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour caused the site to crash and led Ticketmaster to cancel the sale. The fiasco even drew the attention of Swift herself, who called it “excruciating” to watch.
Soon afterward, in January 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing examining Ticketmaster’s dominance in the industry. During the bipartisan hearing, which probed whether Ticketmaster’s outsize control has unfairly hurt customers, even senators couldn’t refrain from making references to Swift.
The Swifties also brought their own lawsuits against Ticketmaster in December 2022. One class-action suit was dropped by the end of 2023, while another suit, filed together by 355 individual ticket buyers, still awaits trial.
Live Nation Entertainment has denied that it’s a monopoly.
The company has told NBC News that the Justice Department’s lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows.”
“Calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment, such as the fact that the bulk of service fees go to venues, and that competition has steadily eroded Ticketmaster’s market share and profit margin,” the company said.
Last week, Live Nation asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to pause the case so it could appeal his decision denying the case’s dismissal.
Subramanian, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, declined to delay the trial and ruled to allow the Justice Department’s claims to proceed.
Potential witnesses for the trial include: musician Kid Rock (whose real name is Robert Ritchie), Minnesota Timberwolves CEO Matthew Caldwell, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez, Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino and Mumford & Sons keyboardist Ben Lovett.
Kid Rock is expected to testify about ‘competitive conditions for concert promotions and primary ticketing, including the impact of Defendants’ actions on artists and fans,’ according to the potential witness list provided by the plaintiffs’ attorneys. In January, he told the Senate Commerce Committee at a hearing that the ticketing industry is ‘full of greedy snakes and scoundrels.’ (It appears Kid Rock is still partnering with Live Nation for his “Freedom 250” tour, with tickets currently being sold exclusively through the platform.)
Lovett’s testimony, meanwhile, would be likely to address ‘artist preferences and competitive dynamics associated with the promotions and amphitheaters markets,’ according to the plaintiffs’ potential witness list document. He’s also listed on the defendants’ potential witness list document.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff are also expected to take the stand. They were instrumental figures in the 2010 merger.
Azoff, who represents major artists such as Harry Styles, is ‘likely to testify about industry trends, dynamics, and competition, the selection of live event promotion companies, and tour and show routing and venue selection, as well as ticketing provider preferences,’ according to the potential witness list provided by the defendants’ attorneys.
Rapino’s expected testimony would focus on ‘the company’s business, its corporate structure, strategy, and finances, including the different lines of business and how they interact, as well as industry trends, dynamics, and competition.’ The defendants’ attorneys also said he would be likely to ‘rebut the plaintiff’s allegations of misconduct and anticompetitive effects.’
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission separately sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster over allegations of illegal and deceptive business practices that it says caused consumers to pay ‘significantly more’ than the face value of a ticket.
Seven states — Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia — joined the FTC’s suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave very different responses to House lawmakers last week when asked whether President Donald Trump should testify in their Jeffrey Epstein probe, newly released video shows.
Both testified to the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors for hours in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York.
Each was also asked by the Democratic side whether Trump should come before the committee himself, given his own known past ties to the late financier and sex trafficker.
‘Absolutely,’ Hillary Clinton answered when the question was posed by Democrats’ staff.
She cited the civil case involving writer E. Jean Carroll in which Trump was found civilly liable for defaming Carroll over her allegations that he sexually assaulted her, as well as the 34-count criminal verdict by a New York City court related to allegations he sought to cover up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
Neither case relates to Epstein, but Hillary Clinton claimed it proved a ‘pattern’ of behavior that would be relevant to the committee’s probe.
‘I think that it would be in keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump. I know he’s been deposed many, many, many times. He’s taken the Fifth Amendment many, many hundreds of times,’ she argued.
‘So I’m not saying you’re going to get a lot of information, but given what’s in the files, and given past and prior conduct, he would be on my witness list.’
Bill Clinton’s response was far more muted, however.
When asked by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the committee’s top Democrat, whether Trump should be called in, the former president did not express support one way or another.
‘That’s for you to decide. But he did know him well, and I once had a brief discussion with him about it,’ Bill Clinton said.
Garcia attempted to move on to the next Democratic lawmaker before Bill Clinton cut in again, ‘I hate this, because I don’t believe I should inject anything, but I do not want to leave the impression, but since there was no follow-up question, he never — the president never, this is 20-something years ago, never said anything to me to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein, either.’
‘He just said, ‘We were friends. And then we had a falling out over a land deal, property deal.’ That’s all,’ Bill Clinton said.
He then said the conversation occurred on Trump’s golf course and that he ‘somehow’ knew that the former president had flown on Epstein’s plane.
‘And he said, you know, ‘We had some great times together over the years, but we fell out all because of a real estate deal.’ And he said, ‘I’m sorry it happened.’ That’s all,’ the former president said.
His deposition included far fewer dramatic moments on the whole than his wife’s, who was confronted by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and others during multiple explosive points in her own deposition.
At one point, Hillary Clinton even temporarily stormed out of her seat after it was discovered that Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., had run afoul of the deposition’s rules by posting a photo of the former secretary of state.
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Hezbollah escalated its involvement in the widening conflict between Iran and the U.S. and Israel Tuesday, launching long-range missiles from Lebanon within 48 hours of coordinated strikes on Iran amid Operation Epic Fury.
The militant group also declared it was ready for an ‘open war,’ The Associated Press reported.
The Iranian-backed militant group fired rockets into northern Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation, according to The Times of Israel. Two were intercepted by air defenses, the military said.
‘Hezbollah is putting everything they have into the fight to add to the challenges Israel will face in this war,’ Ross Harrison, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.
‘But Hezbollah also knows that if the Iranian regime falls, they could be degraded,’ he said before highlighting that ‘Israel could not totally disarm Hezbollah.’
Hezbollah was formed in the early 1980s with Iranian backing during Lebanon’s civil war and has grown into Tehran’s most powerful proxy.
For decades, Iran has funded, armed and trained the group as part of its broader strategy to confront Israel and expand its regional influence.
‘Iran believes that it has to reestablish deterrence before the end of this war with the U.S. and Israel, so expanding it using Hezbollah and attacking Gulf Arab states and Cyprus is part of this,’ Harrison warned.
Israel responded to Hezbollah’s escalation with additional airstrikes on Beirut and expanded its ground operations, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) taking positions near the border.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon reported seeing Israeli troops enter and exit Lebanese territory, though the IDF insisted its forces continue to operate there, according to The Associated Press.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut also announced Tuesday that it would close until further notice in a post on X.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, ‘To prevent the possibility of direct fire at Israeli communities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorized the IDF to advance and hold additional dominant terrain in Lebanon and defend the border communities from there.
‘The IDF continues to operate forcefully against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. The terrorist organization is paying and will pay a heavy price for the fire toward Israel.’
‘Hezbollah, this is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran. The arms are all over the region,’ IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin told Fox News Digital.
‘Last night, they launched missiles into Haifa, into a city center in Israel. They started it, they knew the consequences of that.’
The IDF also announced that it had killed Daoud Ali Zadeh, commander of the Iranian Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps, in Tehran.
The Quds Force acts as a key liaison between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, and Hezbollah leadership, facilitating the transfer of advanced weaponry and enhancing proxy firepower.
‘The Quds Force is the arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, responsible for Iran’s relations with its allied militias, such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen,’ Harrison clarified.
‘The Quds Force is the IRGC’s expeditionary force, designed to give Iran strategic depth,’ he said.
‘They are (or were) significant in managing Iran’s relations with shadowy militia organizations, and it has been challenged over the last couple of years as Hamas and Hezbollah have been degraded.’
On Saturday, the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign had also targeted Iranian leadership in Tehran, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dramatically escalating tensions across the Middle East and triggering regional retaliation.
An interim Leadership Council made up of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi is temporarily in charge of Iran, acting as the de facto head of state.
‘If Iran ends the war prematurely, then they believe the U.S. and Israel can come back later,’ Harrison said.
‘If they escalate, then they have a shot at recreating deterrence. It is a high risk, as it could bring them down. But the danger is they feel they have little choice, and Hezbollah is part of this for Iran.
‘If the Iranian regime can hang on, they win. That said, Iran cannot win militarily, but if they can deny the U.S. a victory, they win.
‘Fundamentally, the Iranian regime is trying to increase the pain of both Israel and the Gulf Arab states to be able to reestablish deterrence lost since the June 2025 war,’ Harrison added.
‘Attacking civilian areas and economic pain points alongside Hezbollah is also part of this strategy.’
Fox News’ Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.
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As Israel wages what it describes as an existential campaign against Iran, IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the war has reinforced a fundamental strategic shift in how Israel sees itself and its alliances, particularly with the United States and regional partners.
‘Israel was never part of this region. We thought we were part of Europe,’ he said. ‘Since the Abraham Accords started, we are having good relations with our neighbors. We are part of this region now.’
He described the 2020 agreements as transformative, building on the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. ‘The military cooperation is great. Some of the things are overt and some covert,’ Defrin said in his first English-language media interview since the beginning of the conflict. ‘Iran is a regional threat, and that is clear to everyone now.’
But he stressed the campaign against Tehran is not only regional.
‘It’s a worldwide problem, it’s a global problem, it’s a regional problem and it’s also an Israeli problem,’ he said. ‘They are not hitting only Israel.’
Months of Deception
The spokesperson revealed that the operation was preceded by months of strategic deception.
‘It was a strategic and operational deception,’ he said.
On the eve of the strike, senior officials deliberately maintained routine appearances.
‘Friday night we went to dinner at home. The chief of staff and I returned late in cars that were not our official vehicles. The official cars stayed at home, and we made sure that from satellite imagery it would not look like the Kirya (ministry of defense) was full while all the planes were armed and ready.’
He said Iran was caught off guard. ‘For many long months there was deception, so they were surprised. They fired what they had pre-planned in their preset response.’
‘A Mutual Operation’
The spokesperson said the strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was carried out in coordination with the Trump administration. ‘It was a mutual operation,’ he said. ‘The cooperation between us and the American military is amazing. We have mutual planning and mutual executing for the plans in Iran and beyond.’
He framed the operation as part of unprecedented U.S.-Israeli military coordination. The entire operation in Iran is a mutual and coordinated campaign,’ he said.
He also described a broader international dimension. ‘It’s a problem with the United States of America as well,’ he said, citing attacks by Iranian-backed groups that have killed American service members and threatened shipping lanes.
‘They are posing a threat to the Red Sea… the movement of naval ships in the Suez Canal dropped by 90% since the Houthis started shooting at ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait,’ he said. ‘It’s a global problem. It’s a terror regime. They are acting all over the world. And again, we had to act.’
He added that regional states increasingly understand the threat. ‘Israel is here to stay. You see the countries of the region placing their trust in Israel.’
Strike on Iranian Targets
Addressing reports that dozens of senior Iranian figures were eliminated in a strike on Tuesday, including claims that 88 members of Iran’s Assembly of Experts were killed, he dismissed the figures.
‘We struck a few targets involved in terrorism. We still don’t have any battle damage assessment. Once we have it, we will publish it. It’s too early.’
He emphasized that the targets were military. ‘We struck military targets,’ he said. ‘They are attacking population centers.’
According to the spokesperson, Israeli intelligence shows Iran is deliberately aiming at civilians ‘to exact a price,’ including launches toward civilian infrastructure.
War Aims
Explaining the decision to launch the campaign, the spokesperson described Iran as an imminent existential threat.
‘We didn’t have another choice, unfortunately. It’s an existential imminent threat. This is a terror regime,’ he said.
‘They declared it. Whatever they declared, they did.’
Asked whether regime change is an objective, he drew a distinction between military aims and political outcomes.
‘As a member of the military, I cannot say we have an aim to remove the regime,’ he said. ‘But definitely, we want to weaken it and create the conditions that one day this regime will be removed by its own people.’
As fighting expands to Lebanon following renewed Hezbollah fire, he reiterated Israel’s view of Iran as the head of a regional network.
‘Hezbollah is an octopus. The head of the octopus is in Iran.’
For Israel, he said, the campaign has clarified a strategic reality shaped by the Abraham Accords and deepened U.S. cooperation. ‘We are part of this region now.’
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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., will force a high-profile vote later this week to require the release of sexual harassment reports involving members of Congress.
Mace said Tuesday that her resolution was drafted in response to recent reports alleging that Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, sent sexually explicit text messages to a former staffer. Regina Santos-Aviles, the one-time aide, later died by suicide in September 2025.
‘I mean, literally, this girl killed herself in the most heinous way,’ Mace told Fox News Digital when asked if the Gonzales allegations were her motivation for the resolution. ‘She literally lit herself on fire and died, and we’re just going to sit here and say, ‘Let the process play out?’ No.’
Gonzales has denied the affair and suggested he is being blackmailed by the attorney of Santos-Aviles’ husband.
‘What you have seen is not all the facts, and there’ll be ample time for all of that,’ Gonzales told reporters last week.
Mace’s resolution would specifically require the House Ethics Committee to publicly release all records regarding acts of sexual harassment involving lawmakers or their staffers within 60 days of enactment.
The South Carolina lawmaker said on the House floor that she will deem the resolution ‘privileged,’ meaning House leadership will have two legislative days to vote on the measure. Lawmakers could also vote to table the resolution or refer it to committee, a way to kill legislation before having to weigh the measure itself.
Mace said she expected a vote on the House floor by Thursday but voiced pessimism when asked by Fox News Digital if she thought the resolution would succeed.
‘No, I’m not optimistic about anything, especially when they just hide everything under the rug,’ Mace said. ‘And if you’re an outspoken woman like I am, well, they’re going to come for you.’
Mace is among a group of conservative lawmakers who have called on Gonzales to resign amid allegations he had an affair with his staffer.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has called the allegations ‘really disgusting.’ Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters last week that Gonzales ‘needs to go.’
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has not made any push one way or the other, though he has called the allegations against the Texas lawmaker ‘very serious’ and ‘alarming and detestable.’ The speaker is wrestling with a razor-thin majority and can afford to lose just one defecting GOP lawmaker on party-line legislation.
The Office of Congressional Conduct is expected to send a report on Gonzales to the House ethics panel after the Texas primary elections Tuesday. Under House rules, reports on lawmakers cannot be released within 60 days of an election.
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from his right flank, social media influencer Brandon Herrera, who is backed by the conservative House Freedom Caucus’ campaign arm. Herrera lost to Gonzales in 2024 by less than 400 votes.
Mace was one of four House Republicans to advocate for the release of files relating to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A request for comment to Gonzales’ office was not immediately returned.
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President Donald Trump is open to the idea of supporting militia groups in Iran willing to help take out the regime, according to reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has spoken with Kurdish leaders, who have a sizable force along the Iraq-Iran border.
‘President Trump has spoken with many regional partners,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the newspaper in a statement, without confirming Trump’s aims.
Trump spoke with two leaders of the main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after the Saturday bombing campaign began, Axios first reported.
Officials told the Journal that Trump hasn’t made a decision on the matter, including what type of help the United States would provide, be it arms, intelligence or other resources.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House.
Among the approaches being looked at for Iran moving forward are backing militias while weighing different scenarios for who could realistically take power after the country’s leaders fall, the newspaper reported.
Trump has urged the people of Iran to overthrow the country’s regime as Tehran appears to be weakened following U.S. and Israeli military strikes that have killed several key Iranian leaders and officials.
‘Most of the people we had in mind are dead,’ he told reporters at the White House. ‘And now we have another group, they may be dead also. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.’
The strikes have fueled speculation that the Kurds could advance into Iran amid Israeli strikes in the western part of the country.
‘It is the general view, and certainly (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork … that they’re going to rise up,’ one official told Axios.
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President Donald Trump argued that whether he carried out strikes against Iran wouldn’t have mattered to congressional Democrats.
They would have criticized him either way.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus immediately ramped up criticism of Trump’s Operation Epic Fury when the Senate returned Monday, and the administration has not yet signaled a clear exit strategy.
Speaking from the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump said Democrats would have criticized any decision he made.
‘If I didn’t do this, guys like Schumer who — losers, the Democrats, losers — guys like Schumer would say, ‘Well, you should have done this,’’ Trump said. ‘In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this.’
Democrats are furious that Trump did not seek approval from Congress to carry out the strikes and are pushing a war powers resolution vote this week to handcuff further use of the military in Iran.
‘Donald Trump has just launched America into a full-scale conflict against one of our most fervent adversaries,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘Without a plan, without an endgame and without authorization from Congress — or even a debate in full view of the American people.’
The administration argued after a closed-door classified briefing with congressional leaders and high-ranking lawmakers that the strikes were carried out as a preemptive measure.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after the briefing, ‘We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.
‘We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,’ Rubio said. ‘And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.’
But Democrats largely aren’t buying the administration’s argument. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, contended there wasn’t an imminent threat to the U.S. from Iran.
‘It was a threat to Israel,’ Warner said.
Senate Democrats plan to plow ahead with a war powers vote, likely Wednesday, led by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and backed by Schumer. Whether they can splinter off enough Republican support, as Kaine did earlier this year with his Venezuela war powers resolution, remains to be seen.
Trump argued that because Iran was ‘a purveyor of terror all over the world,’ Operation Epic Fury was inevitable.
‘It’s something that had to be done,’ Trump said.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted Israel did not pressure him to conduct joint military strikes on Iran, claiming that he believed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ‘was going to attack first.’
Days after the regime leaders were killed and war erupted in Iran, Trump addressed the decision to conduct a joint U.S.-Israel attack on the country, explaining he ‘might have forced Israel’s hand.’
‘I might have forced their hand,’ Trump said from the White House Oval Office on Tuesday. ‘You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. … If we didn’t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. … So, if anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.’
Although sources previously told Fox News the timeline of the attack was moved up to seize an opportunity to strike regime leaders in downtown Tehran, Trump said both the U.S. and Israel were ready.
‘We’ve had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out,’ the president said. ‘Now, their missile count is going way down. Amazingly, they’re hitting countries that were, let’s call them neutral … I think they were surprised. I was surprised, I think. Now those countries are all fighting against them and fighting strongly against them.’
Trump’s comments came after Democrats criticized his decision to launch strikes with Israel in Iran without congressional approval.
Administration officials said they provided congressional notification to the ‘Gang of Eight,’ a bipartisan group of top congressional intelligence leaders, ahead of the strikes, but Congress did not hold a vote to approve them.
The Trump administration has argued the U.S. was facing an ‘imminent threat,’ prompting military action.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. was not going to ‘sit there and absorb a blow’ from Iran, while War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation was not a ‘so-called regime change war’ or an open-ended conflict like that in Iraq.
Trump said he believes regardless of whether the U.S. took part in the strikes on Iran, Democrats would have been unhappy with his decision.
‘If I didn’t do this, guys like [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer who — losers, the Democrats [are] losers — … would say, ‘well, you should have done this.’ In other words, if I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, ‘that you should have done this.’’
He added he has ‘never had more compliments’ on presidential action he has taken, noting ‘people felt that something had to be done.’
‘We [might] have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe lower than even before,’ Trump said.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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