BRAVE MAG

President Donald Trump said Monday he believed the war against Iran was nearly complete, though he did not provide a specific date for a potential end to the conflict.

At a press conference Monday afternoon, he said the U.S. was "achieving major strides toward achieving our military objective," calling it "pretty well complete."

The U.S. was continuing to target Iranian missile and drone manufacturing, the president said, but had left important targets intact for the moment, such as electricity production.

"We could take them all out in one day" if necessary, the president said.

"If we did not hit them, they were going to take over the Middle East."

Earlier on Monday in a phone interview with CBS News, President Trump suggested the war was "very complete, pretty much" and said the U.S. military was "very far" of its planned timeline.

The president's comments came after a day of market turmoil thanks to rising energy prices.

The price for a barrel of crude oil exceeded $100 on Monday for the first time since 2022 and approached $120 at its highest point.

Shipping delays due to safety risks in the strait have continued to drive oil prices, and prices for oil products including gasoline and jet fuel, higher.

Advertisement

In his comments to CBS, regarding the vital Strait of Hormuz, President Trump said that he was "thinking about taking it over."

IRAN WAR AND OIL PRICES |Gas and travel prices could continue to spiral as tanker traffic stalls near Iran

The conflict with Iran spiraled wider over the weekend, as Iran struck against U.S. and Israeli targets in the region.

The state-owned Bapco refinery in Bahrain declared force majeure after Iranian drone strikes damaged the facility and wounded 32 people, including a two-month-old child. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five drones targeting the Shaybah oil field. A government building in Kuwait City also caught fire over the weekend, and the United Arab Emirates scrambled gunships to shoot down Iranian drones.

Iran over the weekend selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of its former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to succeed him as supreme leader. Ali Khamenei was killed in initial airstrikes against Iran at the start of the war.

President Trump last Friday demanded Iran's "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER," and on Saturday warned the country faced "complete destruction."

On Monday he warned that Iran had relocated and continued parts of its nuclear enrichment program

RELATED NEWS |US service member dies from injuries sustained in Iranian attack in Saudi Arabia, US military says

The war has killed seven U.S. service members, the latest of whom died of injuries they sustained during an Iranian attack on American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia on March 1.

Six other service members were killed on March 1 in a drone strike at a U.S. military installation in Kuwait. They were members of the 103rd Sustainment Command based in Des Moines, Iowa.

WASHINGTON − A presidential pardon?

No thanks, said Glenn Brooks, who was convicted for his role in theJan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He would rather try to clear his name through the courts than accept a pardon fromPresident Donald Trump.

TheSupreme Courton March 9 declined to give Brooks a chance to do that.

Lower courts had canceled Brooks' conviction for entering the Capitol and dismissed his appeal as no longer relevant after Trump last yearpardonednearly 1,600 people charged in the 2021 riot.

More:Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by Trump convicted of child sexual abuse

January 6 defendants march in DC five years after attack on Capitol

But Brooks, a home remodeling contractor and a "deeply religious man," argued he has the right to try to fully exonerate himself.

"A forced pardon operates as a compelled confession, branding the individual with guilt and stripping him of his chosen appellate forum," Brooks' lawyerstold the Supreme Court.

His lawyers also said the issue is "of profound national importance given the increased use of presidential pardons in politically sensitive cases."

The Department of Justice waived its right to respond to Brooks'Supreme Courtappeal.

Brooks, who traveled to Washington from Huntington Beach, California, to support Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, is one of a few people who found their pardons from Trump unpalatable for one reason or another.

'The worst day of my life'

Pamela Hemphill, aformer Trump supporterwho served two months in prison for storming the Capitol, formally rejected thepresident's pardon.

Advertisement

But, unlike Brooks, Hemphill had pleaded guilty to joining the angry mob of protesters.

The senior citizen said she turned down the pardon because she wanted to be honest.

"How could I live my life knowing that I was guilty and then I took that pardon?" shepreviously said. "It's kind of like a message that it was OK that day − it was not OK that day. That was the worst day of my life."

More:Pamela Hemphill, who rejected her Jan. 6 pardon, says 'it was not OK that day'

Brooks, by contrast, fought the four misdemeanors he was charged with for entering the Capitol and wants the chance to overturn his conviction. He argues that the government lacked sufficient evidence, particularly that Brooks knew what he was doing was a crime.

Member of his prayer group contacted FBI

Brooks was arrested after a fellow member of his prayer group told the FBI that Brooks had texted fellow church members photos of himself inside the Capitol. Security cameras showed Brooks, wearing a knit "Trump" hat, climbing through a broken window on the Senate side of the Capitol.

"Although he now recognizes entering the building was not appropriate and certainly entering through a window was inappropriate, at the time, he was following the crowd and walking through a window was not abnormal to him, as he worked on many construction sites in the past," an attorney for Brooks wrote in a filing.

After a jury convicted Brooks in 2024, he was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay $500 in restitution and a $2,000 fine.

Forcibly removed from prison for a pardon he didn't want

Near the end of his sentence, Brooks said, he was "forcibly awakened and removed from prison" despite his refusal to accept Trump's pardon.

"By forcibly imposing a pardon – an instrument historically associated with mercy for the guilty – the government conscripts the defendant into a narrative of culpability," his lawyers told the Supreme Court, "and cuts off the very process that could correct the record."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:A Jan. 6 rioter doesn't want Trump's pardon. Supreme Court weighs in.

Charlotte Manley, ex-Prince Andrew's former assistant, says she is willing to speak with police about her time working for him

NEED TO KNOW

• Manley reportedly signed a check for a massage arranged by Ghislaine Maxwell and accompanied Andrew on trade envoy trips

• Andrew was arrested in February on misconduct allegations tied to Jeffrey Epstein, as scrutiny of his past actions continues to grow

Charlotte Manley, a past assistant for the formerPrince Andrew, has agreed to speak with police in the wake of Andrew's arrest.

The 68-year-old former Royal Navy officer served as a private secretary and treasurer to Andrew from 2001 to 2003, and was also Andrew's assistant private secretary and treasurer since 1996.

Manley toldThe Timesin the U.K., that she'd be willing to speak with police about her time serving King Charles' brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

When theTimesvisited her home to ask about the alleged payment and the accusations against her former employer, Manley declined the opportunity to comment on the accusations against her former employer, saying, "I would rather talk to the police than the press, not that I would have much to tell them."

Manley regularly accompanied Andrew on his international visits while he was serving as the U.K.'s special representative for trade and investment.

Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19 and detained for 11 hours on suspicion of misconduct in public office, linked to allegations that he improperly shared information as a U.K. trade envoy with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According toThe Times, Manley signed a £75 ($100) check from the Buckingham Palace bank account on Andrew's behalf in 2000 for a massage arranged by Epstein's girlfriendGhislaine Maxwell.

PEOPLE has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

Advertisement

Maxwell's former masseuseMonique Giannelloni previously sharedthat Manley arranged for her to visit Andrew at the Palace.

"I got to the room and Andrew was stood there in a robe," Giannelloni previously told theDaily Mail. "After saying 'hello', he disappeared to the bathroom and came back in the nude. I averted my eyes, and I was quite embarrassed."

Giannelloni added that despite the initial awkwardness, Andrew was "very nice and very gentlemanly" for the rest of the massage.

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage?Sign up for our free Royals newsletterto get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

Andrew's conduct has been called into question for more than a decade thanks to sexual-assault allegations made by lateprominent Epstein accuser, Virginia Giuffre. Andrew has repeatedly denied claims that Giuffre was forced into sexual encounters with him at the age of 17 in the early 2000s. In 2022, the two reached a civil settlement without admission of liability.Giuffre died by suicidein 2025.

As Andrew's fall from grace continues, an MP has now called for an offshore firm linked to the royal to be investigated. The MP is seeking answers on whether the firm helped to fund Andrew's escapades while he served as trade envoy.

According toThe Times, documents revealed that Andrew jointly owned a company called Inverness Asset Management, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2007 and later wrapped in 2019.

Read the original article onPeople