First lady Melania Trump addressed questions about her prolonged absence at a White House Rose Garden event. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

"Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am," Melania Trump said to laughter from the audience. She spoke at an event announcing the expansion of a foster care initiative.

Questions about Trump aide Natalie Harp

The White House faced fresh questions on Thursday over whether Donald Trump's closest aide, Natalie Harp, had access to US government secrets without security clearance. Harp, who is executive assistant to the US president, worked at the White House for a year without the routine clearance, the MS Now network reported on Thursday. She refused to file the relevant forms for unknown reasons, according to two unnamed sources cited by MS Now.

It was only when the White House counsel's office raised the issue, and when Trump himself became involved, that Harp filled out the paperwork for a federal background investigation and was belatedly granted clearance.

Norm Eisen, a former White House ethics tsar, said: "It is shocking that an aid" (the quote is cut off in the original).

New sanctions against Iran and Turkey

The US treasury department announced sanctions on Thursday against 10 people it says formed a courier network that smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah by carrying cash onboard commercial flights between Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. The office of foreign assets control (OFAC) said the network allowed Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, to obtain foreign currency and dodge sanctions outside the formal banking system. The treasury department linked the operation to a scheme once associated with Behnam Shahriyari, a now-deceased finance official for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.

At the center of the network, according to the department, is Yunus Alper Yilmaz, a Turkish businessman accused of running the courier operation and using Turkish-based currency exchange houses as fronts, along with shell companies and bank accounts tied to the IRGC-QF. Two men accused of collecting cash from those exchange houses on his behalf, Halil Ibrahim Kacmaz and Onder Dede, were designated, as was Vasfi Akyuz, described as a logistics coordinator who also worked as a courier. Six others – Mehmet Akyuz, Mehmet Acur, Feyyad Karasalih, Masoud Mousafar, Gulay Kaya Savci and Emrah Ayaz – are accused of physically carrying the cash to Lebanon on commercial flights. None of the 10 appear to be public or widely known figures.

The action lands amid a sharp rise in tensions between Turkey and Israel this week, after Israeli airstrikes on a Syrian airbase near Aleppo prompted Ankara to accuse Israel of using the incident as a pretext to violate Syrian sovereignty. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, warned Turkey against expanding its military footprint in Syria.

Other key events

  • 01Election forecaster now rates both Texas and Iowa Senate races as toss ups.
  • 02DNC sues DOJ over unanswered FOIA requests regarding ballot seizures.
  • 03'Maybe, maybe not': Michael Cohen declines to say if he'll use his Trump interview to seek a pardon.
  • 04Scott Jennings reportedly pushing for White House press secretary role.
  • 05Swalwell's electronics seized and home raided by FBI - report.
  • 06James Braid departs White House ahead of midterms.
  • 07US unemployment claims dropped to 206,000 last week, with layoffs still sparse.
  • 08Natalie Harp worked at White House without security clearance for nearly a year – report.
  • 09Iran foreign minister points to US national debt as Trump threatens 'economic warfare'.
  • 10Democrats and Republicans outraged over $40tn national debt.