By STEFANIE DAZIO and KAREEM CHEHAYEB, Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The top diplomats of Britain, France, and Germany threatened to reimpose sanctions on Iran as an end-of-the-month deadline nears for the country to resume negotiations with the West over its nuclear program and cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog.

The three countries, known as the E3, wrote in a letter to the United Nations dated Friday that they were willing to trigger a process known as the “snapback” mechanism, which allows one of the Western parties to reimpose U.N. sanctions, if Tehran doesn’t comply with its requirements.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Nöel Barrot posted the letter Wednesday to X. He co-signed it along with top diplomats from Germany and the United Kingdom.

Related Articles

European leaders to speak with Trump ahead of his Friday summit with Putin

Today in History: August 13, East Germany closes Berlin border

Torrential rains shut down flights at Mexico City airport for second day

Crypto mogul Do Kwon, known as ‘the cryptocurrency king,’ pleads guilty to fraud charges

Mexico expels 26 cartel figures wanted by US authorities in deal with Trump administration

“E3 have always committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon,” the letter said. “We have made clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism.”

The letter comes following a period of apparent diplomatic deadlock after a 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June, where Israeli and American jets struck some key nuclear-related facilities in the Islamic Republic.

The countries met with Iranian officials last month in Turkey at Iran’s consulate building in Istanbul on the possibility of reimposing international sanctions, lifted in 2015 in exchange for Tehran accepting restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said at the time that he hoped that the meeting would see the E3 nations reassess their “previous unconstructive attitude.”

The Iranian government didn’t immediately comment Wednesday on the development.

Since the war, talks with Washington for a new nuclear deal haven’t resumed, and Iran has since suspended ties with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, following the attacks. The IAEA’s first visit to Iran since the war didn’t entail any visits to nuclear facilities Monday, and cooperation wasn’t officially restored.

One of the three countries opting to trigger the snapback mechanism would renew sanctions on Iran, but Tehran renewing cooperation with the Vienna-based IAEA and addressing concerns about its highly-enriched uranium stockpile would delay it, according to a diplomat who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity following July’s meeting in Istanbul.

Iran has had limited IAEA inspections in the past as a pressure tactic in negotiating with the West and it is unclear how soon talks between Tehran and Washington for a deal over its nuclear program will resume.

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Josef Hinterseher on Wednesday said that the letter “once again underlines that the legal preconditions for snapback have long existed.”

“Our position and our appeal is, very clearly, that Iran still has the choice of deciding to return to diplomacy … and full cooperation with the IAEA,” he told reporters at a regular news conference in Berlin.

U.S. intelligence agencies and the IAEA had assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

The IAEA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Geir Moulson contributed to this report from Berlin.

By MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people seeking aid in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials and witnesses said, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will “allow” Palestinians to leave during an upcoming military offensive in some of the territory’s most populated areas.

Netanyahu wants to realize U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision of relocating much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million people through what he refers to as “voluntary migration” — and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing.

“Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the Strip if they want,” Netanyahu said in an interview aired Tuesday with i24, an Israeli TV station, to discuss the planned offensive in areas including Gaza City where hundreds of thousands of displaced people shelter. “We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.”

Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were shot dead on their way to aid distribution sites and while awaiting convoys entering Gaza. Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ceasefire talks set to resume

Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.

Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, the prime minister’s office said.

Related Articles

European leaders to speak with Trump ahead of his Friday summit with Putin

Today in History: August 13, East Germany closes Berlin border

Torrential rains shut down flights at Mexico City airport for second day

Crypto mogul Do Kwon, known as ‘the cryptocurrency king,’ pleads guilty to fraud charges

Mexico expels 26 cartel figures wanted by US authorities in deal with Trump administration

Israel’s plans to widen its military offensive against Hamas to the areas of Gaza that it does not yet control have sparked condemnation and criticism at home and abroad, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 of them are alive. Families fear a new offensive endangers them.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Netanyahu was asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal and he responded that he wanted all of the hostages back, alive and dead.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry Badr Abdelatty told reporters that Cairo is still trying to advance an earlier proposal for an initial 60-day ceasefire, the release of some hostages and an influx of humanitarian aid before further talks on a lasting truce.

Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to lay down its arms.

South Sudan calls reports of resettlement talks baseless

Israel and South Sudan are in talks about relocating Palestinians to the war-torn East African nation, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

The office of Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel, said Wednesday she was arriving in South Sudan for a series of meetings in the first visit by a senior government official to the country, but she did not plan to broach the subject of moving Palestinians.

South Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs in a statement called reports that it was engaging in discussions with Israel about resettling Palestinians baseless.

The AP previously reported that U.S. and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for moving Palestinians uprooted from Gaza.

Killed while seeking aid

Among those killed while seeking aid were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to staff at Nasser hospital.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza move along the border with Gaza Strip in southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Hashim Shamalah said Israeli troops fired toward them as people tried to get through. Many were shot and fell while fleeing, he said.

Israeli gunfire killed five other Palestinians while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses.

GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites Wednesday.

The U.S. and Israel support GHF, an American contractor, as an alternative to the United Nations, which they claim allows Hamas to siphon off aid. The U.N., which has delivered aid throughout Gaza for decades when conditions allow, denies the allegations.

Aid convoys from other groups travel within 100 meters (328 feet) of GHF sites and draw crowds attempting to loot them. An overwhelming majority of violent incidents over the past few weeks have been related to those convoys, the GHF said.

Israeli fire killed at least six other people waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said.

UN says starvation at highest levels of the war

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday shared the warning from the World Food Program and said Gaza’s Health Ministry told U.N. staff that five people died over the previous 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.

The Health Ministry says 106 children have died of malnutrition-related causes during the war and 129 adults have died since late June.

The U.N. and humanitarian partners still face significant delays and impediments from Israeli authorities who prevent the delivery of food and other essentials at the scale needed, Dujarric said.

Hamas abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the 2023 attack. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza’s population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

Housing vouchers, which typically cover a portion of a participant’s rent, are a key tool to fighting homelessness in an increasingly unaffordable city. But they can be hard to use. Host Kadisha Davis discusses those pitfalls and asks listeners to share what an ideal voucher program would look like to them.

New York City lawmakers and advocates at a 2023 rally calling for the expansion of CityFHEPs, the city’s main voucher program. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit)

Housing vouchers, which typically cover a portion of a participant’s rent, are a key tool to fighting homelessness in an increasingly unaffordable city like New York.

But they can be hard to use. Voucher holders often face discrimination in the city’s competitive rental market, and some assistance programs are bogged down by bureaucratic hurdles.

On the latest episode of the Hear Our Voices podcast—which shares stories, resources and information about family homelessness in New York City—Host Kadisha Davis discusses those pitfalls and asks listeners to share what an ideal voucher program would look like to them.

The question isn’t all hypothetical: this year, New York State committed to launching a pilot program for a new voucher, dubbed the Housing Access Voucher Program (HVAP), eligible to households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, regardless of their immigration status. It’s expected to launch next spring.

At the same time, Mayor Eric Adams and the NYC Council have been locked in a court battle over expanding access to New York City’s rental assistance voucher, CityFHEPS. Among other changes, councilmembers want to raise the income eligibility threshold—from 200 percent of the poverty line to 50 percent of area median income, equal to $81,000 a year for a four-person household.

To Davis, raising that threshold is key to an effective voucher program. “I think especially in this economy, a lot of people are working multiple jobs” to afford their housing, she said.

You can listen to the full episode below.

Editor’s Note: The “Hear Our Voices” podcast is produced by the Family Homelessness Coalition, whose members include Citizens’ Committee for Children, a City Limits funder.

The post ‘Hear Our Voices’ Podcast: The Ideal Housing Voucher appeared first on City Limits.

By DAVID FISCHER, Associated Press

MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge is set to hear closing arguments Wednesday over whether to stop construction indefinitely at an immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” as she considers whether it violates environmental laws.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered a two-week halt on new construction last Thursday as witnesses continued to testify in a hearing to determine whether construction should end until the ultimate resolution of the case.

The temporary order doesn’t include any restrictions on law enforcement or immigration enforcement activity at the center, which is currently holding hundreds of detainees. The center, which was quickly built two months ago at a lightly used, single-runway training airport, is designed to eventually hold up to 3,000 detainees in temporary tent structures.

Related Articles

Why many Americans are rethinking alcohol, according to a new Gallup poll

Tennessee town approves deals to turn closed prison into immigration detention facility

Today in History: August 13, East Germany closes Berlin border

Police in Southern California find $30K worth of Labubus stolen from warehouse

Man admits trying to smuggle 850 protected turtles valued at $1.4 million to Hong Kong

The order temporarily barred the installation of any new industrial-style lighting, as well as any paving, filling, excavating, fencing or erecting additional buildings, tents, dormitories or other residential or administrative facilities.

Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe want Williams to issue a preliminary injunction to halt operations and further construction, which they say threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands that are home to protected plants and animals and would reverse billions of dollars’ worth of environmental restoration.

Plaintiffs presented witnesses Wednesday and Thursday who testified that the facility violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of major construction projects.

Attorneys for the state and federal government have said that although the detention center would be holding federal detainees, the construction and operation of the facility is entirely under the state of Florida, meaning the federal environmental review wouldn’t apply.

The judge last week said the detention facility was, at a minimum, a joint partnership between the state and federal government.

Witnesses describe environmental threats

Witnesses for the environmental groups have testified that at least 20 acres (8 hectares) of asphalt have been added to the site since the Florida Division of Emergency Management began construction. They said additional paving could lead to an increase in water runoff to the adjacent wetlands, spread harmful chemicals into the Everglades and reduce the habitat for endangered Florida panthers.

Amy Castaneda, the Miccosukee Tribe’s water resource director, testified Tuesday that nutrient runoff from the detention center could flow into tribal lands, changing vegetation growth. That could lead to fish kills and block humans and wildlife from moving throughout certain areas, she said.

Marcel Bozas, director of the Miccosukee Tribe’s fish and wildlife department, said tribe members hunt and fish for subsistence and cultural reasons. Sustained human activity can drive away game animals, like whitetail deer, as well as protected species, like Florida panthers, wood storks, eastern black rails and bonneted bats, he said.

State official says Florida runs center

Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles executive director David Kerner testified that the 1,800 state troopers under his command are authorized to detain undocumented migrants under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He said the federal government doesn’t tell the state where to detain immigrants, and that the Everglades facility was built to alleviate overcrowding at federal immigration detention facilities, as well as state and county facilities with agreements to hold federal immigration detainees.

Kerner couldn’t say how many of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been charged with violent crimes or whether any other sites besides the middle of the Everglades were considered for possible detention centers.

Attorneys for federal and state agencies last month asked Williams to dismiss or transfer the injunction request, saying the lawsuit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction. Even though the property is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue for the lawsuit because the detention center is in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district, they said.

Williams had yet to rule on that argument.

Facility faces a second legal challenge

In a second legal challenge to “Alligator Alcatraz,” a federal judge over the weekend gave the state more time to prepare arguments against an effort to get the civil rights litigation certified as a class action.

U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz in Miami said he will only consider a motion by detainees’ lawyers for a preliminary injunction during an Aug. 18 hearing. He set a Sept. 23 deadline for the state to respond to the detainee’s class action request. The second lawsuit claims detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated because they are barred from meeting lawyers, are being held without any charges, and a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

The lawsuits were being heard as DeSantis′ administration apparently was preparing to build a second immigration detention center at a Florida National Guard training center in north Florida. At least one contract has been awarded for what is labeled in state records as the “North Detention Facility.”