• Rubio has not closed door to running in 2028.
• Vance says will talk to Trump about possibility of running.
• Trump calls both Vance, Rubio of very high intelligence.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to take sides in the debate over whether his vice president, JD Vance, or his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would most likely be his successor in the 2028 Republican presidential campaign.

Vance, a former Republican senator from Ohio, has said he will talk to Trump about the possibility of running after the November midterm elections.

There is also speculation among Republican insiders that Rubio, a former senator from Florida who ran for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and lost to Trump, could seek the presidency.

Rubio has not closed the door to running in 2028, but has praised Vance as a strong potential candidate.

Trump said he would “be inclined” to endorse a successor when asked about Vance and Rubio during an interview with NBC News, but added that he did not want to get into the subject now.

“We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’ — it wouldn’t be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic,” Trump said.

Trump has often said the two men should run together on the same ticket. The 2028 election will feature a wide-open race on both the Republican and Democratic sides and crowded fields are expected.

In a possible nod to Rubio, the country’s chief diplomat, Trump said of the pair: “I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other.”

He called them both men of very high intelligence.

“I think there’s a difference in style,” Trump said. “You know, you can see the style yourself. But they’re both very capable. I do think this: The combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right?”

Trump in the interview also again appeared to toy with the possibility of seeking an unconstitutional third term. He had flirted with the idea last year, later abandoning the concept.

Asked if he saw “any scenario” in which he would still be president when the next president’s term begins in January 2029, Trump said: “I don’t know. It would be interesting.”

• Kasim says trying to travel to Pakistan but being “denied visas”.
• “Denying a prisoner treatment is cruel,” says Kasim.
• Statement comes amid controversy over Imran’s health.

Jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s son Kasim Khan has alleged that he and his brother are trying to travel to Pakistan to see their father, but the government is deliberately refusing to process their visa applications.

In a statement issued on X, Kasim said Imran has been held in “solitary confinement” for 914 days, during which his health has deteriorated and he has been denied access to independent medical care. 

He said denying medical treatment to a prisoner was “cruel” and preventing his children from seeing him amounted to collective punishment. 

Kasim called on international human rights organisations and governments to speak out and act “before irreversible harm is done”.

The statement comes amid recent controversy surrounding Imran’s health.

He recently underwent an eye procedure at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, where doctors confirmed that pressure in blood vessels had affected his vision. The PTI has accused the government of withholding details of his medical condition for several days.

It may be noted that Kasim and his brother Suleiman said in December 2025 that they had submitted visa applications and intended to visit Pakistan in January. 

Imran’s sons have repeatedly claimed that their father is being held in a ‘death cell’ at Adiala Jail under what they described as “awful” conditions, with prolonged restrictions on communication. They have said that court-mandated contact has not been consistently allowed.

Meetings with the PTI founder have remained a point of contention between the party and the government. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar has confirmed that a blanket ban on meetings with the incarcerated politician has been in place since December 2025.

Kasim publicly highlighted his father’s imprisonment for the first time in May 2025. In June 2025, he took to X to express concern over Imran’s condition in jail. In a separate post, he criticised the incumbent government over what he described as his father’s imprisonment and “torture”.

The sons later said they feared authorities were concealing “something irreversible” about their father’s condition after more than three weeks without evidence that he was still alive.

The family had also sought access for Imran’s personal physician, who they say has not been permitted to examine him for more than a year.

However, the Adiala jail administration clarified that Imran is being provided all facilities available to ‘B-Class’ prisoners under the law, including tailored meals, healthcare, reading materials, exercise and walks.

Imran, 72, has been in jail since August 2023 after being convicted in multiple cases, which he says are politically motivated following his removal from office through a parliamentary vote in 2022.

His first conviction was linked to allegations of unlawfully selling state gifts, commonly referred to as the Toshakhana case. Subsequent verdicts added lengthy prison sentences, including 10 years for leaking a diplomatic cable and 14 years in a graft case related to the Al-Qadir Trust. Prosecutors allege the charity was involved in improper land deals.

Imran remains incarcerated as legal proceedings continue, with his conviction in the Toshakhana-2 case marking the latest setback. He faces dozens of cases filed since 2022, ranging from corruption to anti-terrorism and state secrets charges. He has denied all allegations, which his party says are politically driven.

The PTI maintains that the prosecutions are aimed at excluding Imran Khan from public life and elections.

Singer LaMonte McLemore, a founding member of vocal group The 5th Dimension, whose smooth pop and soul sounds with a touch of psychedelia brought them big hits in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 90.

McLemore died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas, surrounded by family, his representative Jeremy Westby said in a statement obtained by CBS News. He died of natural causes after having a stroke.

The 5th Dimension had broad crossover success and won six Grammy Awards , including record of the year twice, for 1967’s “Up, Up and Away” and 1969’s “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” Both were also top 10 pop hits, with the latter, a mashup of songs from the musical “Hair,” spending six weeks at No. 1.

McLemore had a parallel career as a sports and celebrity photographer whose pictures appeared in magazines, including Jet.

Born in St. Louis, McLemore served in the Navy, where he worked as an aerial photographer. He played baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm system and settled in Southern California, where he began making use of his warm bass voice and skill with a camera.

He sang in a jazz ensemble, the Hi-Fi’s, with future 5th Dimension bandmate Marilyn McCoo. The group opened for Ray Charles in 1963 but broke up the following year.

McLemore, McCoo and two of his childhood friends from St. Louis, Billy Davis Jr. and Ronald Towson, later formed a singing group called the Versatiles. They also recruited Florence LaRue, a schoolteacher McLemore met through his photography, to join them. In 1965 they signed to singer Johnny Rivers’ new label, Soul City Records, and changed their name to The 5th Dimension to better represent the cultural moment.

Their breakthrough hit came in 1967 with the Mamas & the Papas’ song “Go Where You Wanna Go.”

That same year, they released the Jimmy Webb-penned “Up, Up and Away,” which would go to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and win four Grammys: record of the year, best contemporary single, best performance by a vocal group and best contemporary group performance.

In 1968 they had hits with a pair of Laura Nyro songs, “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Sweet Blindness.”

1969 brought the peak of their commercial success with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” which along with its long run at No. 1 won Grammys for record of the year and best contemporary vocal performance by a group.

That same year they played the Harlem Cultural Festival, which has become known as the “Black Woodstock.” The festival, and The 5th Dimension’s part in it, were chronicled in the 2021 documentary from Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, “Summer of Soul.”

The 5th Dimension also had a rare level of success with white audiences for a group whose members were all Black. The phenomenon came with criticism.

“We were constantly being attacked because we weren’t, quote, unquote, ‘Black enough,'” McCoo said in “Summer of Soul.” “Sometimes we were called the Black group with the white sound, and we didn’t like that. We happened to be artists who are Black, and our voices sound the way they sound.”

The group had hits into the 1970s including “One Less Bell to Answer,” “(Last Night) I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All” and “If I Could Reach You.”

They became regulars on TV variety shows and performed at the White House and on an international cultural tour organized by the State Department.

The original lineup lasted until 1975, when McCoo and Davis left to make their own music.

“All of us who knew and loved him will definitely miss his energy and wonderful sense of humor,” McCoo and Davis, who married in 1969, said in a statement.

LaRue said in her own statement that McLemore’s “cheerfulness and laughter often brought strength and refreshment to me in difficult times. We were more like brother and sister than singing partners.”

McLemore is survived by his wife of 30 years, Mieko McLemore, daughter Ciara, son Darin, sister Joan and three grandchildren.