A confidential report from the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring body shows that Iran sharply expanded its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in the days leading up to Israel’s military strike on June 13, according to a Wednesday report from the Associated Press.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), headquartered in Vienna, wrote in its most recent update that Iran had accumulated 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity as of June 13. That amount represents an increase of 32.3 kilograms since the agency’s last update in May and places Iran just one technical step below weapons-grade capability.
The findings draw on disclosures made by Iran, on-the-ground verification work carried out from May 17 through June 12, and projections based on earlier monitoring. Uranium at 60% purity is widely recognized as alarmingly close to the 90% level necessary for use in nuclear arms.
The IAEA also confirmed it has not been able to reach any deal with Tehran to restart inspections at facilities hit by U.S. and Israeli strikes in June. Since the outbreak of the conflict, inspectors have only been granted access to the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, where Russian experts are assisting with operations.
Rafael Grossi, the agency’s director general, urged Iran to restore full cooperation quickly, stressing that its scaled-back compliance after the fighting began was “deeply regrettable.”
The report further disclosed that Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile had reached 9,874.9 kilograms by June 13—an increase of 627.3 kilograms compared with May. Since then, the agency has been unable to track developments because of Tehran’s restrictions, which it flagged as a “serious concern.”
IAEA experts noted that only 42 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% would be enough for a single nuclear device if it were taken to the 90% weapons threshold.
{Matzav.com}
Israel is continuing to concentrate its forces and equipment for what could be a full-scale military control of Gaza, with the stated goal of eliminating Hamas in order to bring the conflict to an end. At the same time, President Donald Trump issued another strong call for Hamas to release the hostages still in captivity.
“Tell Hamas to IMMEDIATELY give back all 20 Hostages (Not 2 or 5 or 7!), and things will change rapidly,” Trump posted Wednesday morning on Truth Social.
“IT WILL END!”
Since the war against Hamas erupted on October 7, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the situation as a battle being waged on seven different fronts, involving Iran and its network of proxies. From the start, the objectives for Israel’s campaign have been clear: bring back every hostage, dismantle Hamas, and remove both the weapons and the radical ideology entrenched in Gaza.
Trump’s message emphasized that the 20 hostages thought to still be alive should be returned at once. Overall, roughly 50 people taken on October 7 remain missing, but Israeli officials fear that around 30 of them have already been killed, in which case their remains would have to be returned.
Despite mounting global criticism and accusations of “genocide,” Israel argues that civilian deaths are a tragic consequence of Hamas’s deliberate use of innocent people as shields. Officials insist that military strikes are aimed at terrorist infrastructure but that Hamas ensures these targets are placed among civilians to manipulate world opinion.
Reports have long indicated that Hamas has exploited humanitarian supplies to build its network of tunnels beneath Gaza. Israeli officials also stress that many of these underground operations are run directly under or inside hospitals. That, they say, causes the world to misinterpret legitimate strikes on terrorists as deliberate attacks on noncombatants.
{Matzav.com}
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un brought along his own portable toilet on his trip to China, a measure meant to ensure no biological traces of his health could be collected, according to intelligence assessments from Japan and South Korea. Observers also noted that his entourage went to unusual lengths to sanitize the meeting space where he conferred with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The customized bathroom was installed on his signature green bulletproof train, which carried him to Beijing on Tuesday to attend China’s largest-ever military parade, an event marking 80 years since Japan’s defeat in World War II.
“The physical condition of the supreme leader has a major impact on the North Korean regime,” a South Korean intelligence official familiar with Pyongyang’s practices told Nikkei Asia, a prominent English-language news outlet based in Japan.
“North Korea makes a particular effort to seal off anything related to that, such as hair and excrement.”
Meanwhile, Kremlin journalist Alexander Yunashev posted footage that appeared to show Kim’s aides diligently tidying up the meeting space following a two-and-a-half-hour conversation between the North Korean leader and Putin.
Yunashev observed that Kim’s team “took away the glass from which he drank, wiped the upholstery of the chair and those parts of the furniture that the Korean leader touched.”
{Matzav.com}
Senior aides in the White House are quietly considering bringing Eric Adams into President Trump’s administration, sources revealed, while political insiders push struggling mayoral hopefuls to exit the race in order to consolidate opposition against socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Discussions about Adams potentially receiving a coveted position have been happening among senior Trump officials, though it is not known whether the president himself has been directly involved yet, according to people familiar with the matter.
“I think Adams would be able to craft a position and a portfolio that’s to his liking,” one source connected to Trump’s team said.
“I’ve heard the Adams team wants it,” added another person familiar with White House deliberations.
A political insider close to Adams acknowledged that members of his circle are encouraging him to accept the federal lifeline, but Adams himself has not appeared fully convinced.
“I have a job. I’m running for re-election, I’m still doing that and I’m looking forward to getting re-elected,” Adams told reporters during a press event Wednesday, brushing aside the chatter.
These behind-the-scenes maneuvers come at a time when Adams’ scandal-plagued independent re-election effort looks all but doomed, and his continued candidacy is seen as making Mamdani’s road to City Hall easier with four names still in the running.
Mamdani vaulted into the lead after unexpectedly defeating ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary.
But Cuomo, refusing to bow out, launched an independent campaign of his own.
With both men still running and others lingering in the race, Mamdani’s advantage has only grown stronger. Surveys show his dominance would only be seriously tested in a direct head-to-head battle with Cuomo.
For months, Trump’s allies have tried persuading long-shot candidates like independent Jim Walden and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to stand down, according to insiders. Walden formally ended his far-fetched campaign on Tuesday.
Adams did not seek the Democratic nomination after the Trump Justice Department controversially decided to drop a corruption case against him.
Instead, he pursued an independent path, after he and his donors unsuccessfully lobbied for Sliwa to be offered a role in Trump’s administration, a deal that would have paved Adams’ way to secure the Republican line in November, sources have said.
Sliwa, however, turned down the administration’s job offer, one insider confirmed.
“Now, they are seeing if Adams would be interested in working for the administration,” a source explained. “Adams is in a unique position in the sense of he does share a lot of the administration’s goals especially on crime and immigration, so he could likely make a real impact whether at home or abroad.”
An ambassadorship is seen as the most attractive possibility for Adams, considering his long-held ambition to do international consulting work once his time as mayor ends, another insider noted.
“He can have any ambassadorship he wants,” someone close to Adams claimed.
“Mayor Adams has made it clear he will not respond to every rumor that comes up. He will remain focus , not be distracted and Grind for New Yorkers,” Adams campaign spokesman Todd Shapiro said in a statement.
According to Shapiro, Adams has not had any conversations with Trump nor sat down with him about the mayoral race.
“The Mayor is fully committed to winning this election, with millions of New Yorkers preparing to cast their votes. His record is clear: crime is down, jobs are up, and he has consistently stood up for working families. Mayor Adams is focused on building on that progress and earning four more years to continue delivering for the people of New York.”
Still, Adams and his advisers had a private strategy session scheduled for Wednesday afternoon to determine whether to continue his struggling re-election campaign, sources said.
Although Adams has repeatedly insisted he intends to fight until the end, he appeared to shift slightly in tone after spending his birthday week in Florida on Tuesday.
When a Fox5 reporter pressed him Wednesday morning about speculation he might leave the race, Adams offered a response that was notably less emphatic than usual.
“Whenever I make a move, I’ll make an announcement. I’m in this race to win and if anything changes, trust me, I’ll be on Channel 5,” he said.
{Matzav.com}
Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu delivered a harsh rebuke of the ongoing demonstrations against his government, charging that they have gone far beyond acceptable limits of civic protest.
“In a democracy, demonstrations are legitimate. However, what is happening in the financed, organized, and political protests against the Government, which have crossed every line, is that they are vandalizing property, blocking roads, making millions of citizens miserable, and chasing after elected officials and their children, on their way to kindergarten and school,” Netanyahu stated.
The Prime Minister alleged that those taking part in the demonstrations “threaten to murder me, the Prime Minister, and my family on a daily basis, and they deal in arson. They said that they would surround my house, the Prime Minister’s Residence, with a ring of fire, literally like fascist gangs.”
Referring to a fire set close to his residence in Yerushalayim, Netanyahu described: “They lit a fire on Charlap Street, right next to my home, and this fire also ignited a car. The car belongs to Captain (Res.) Yoav Bar Yishai. He is the grandson of Yaakov Neeman, who was an amazing Finance and Justice Minister.
“This year, Yoav has served around 260 days, in three rounds, in both Gaza and Lebanon. He serves as an officer in an elite Armored Corps unit. He has three daughters. They burned his car. His wife cannot take the kids. Then they volunteered to finance the purchase of a new car. Don’t do any favors. Don’t make us laugh. You talk about democracy? You talk and behave just like fascists.”
Later, Netanyahu turned his criticism toward the law enforcement authorities. “What’s happening here is simple – there is no enforcement, when there is no enforcement, there is escalation. And indeed, they began by breaking through roadblocks, after that, they tried to break through fences, and after that, they fired flares, which nearly burned a security guard to death next to my house, and now they are making a ring of fire.
“Where is the enforcement? It doesn’t exist. This isn’t selective enforcement; there isn’t enforcement at all, and this must change. This is what I demand for the enforcement bodies. This is what the people demand to uphold democracy.”
{Matzav.com}
A sharp dispute has erupted over Israel’s milk industry, after the chief rabbis rejected Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter’s request to allow dairies to operate during Shabbos and the upcoming Tishrei Yomim Tovim.
In a formal letter sent to the minister, Chief Rabbis Rav Dovid Yosef and Rav Kalman Ber made clear that any dairy operations on Shabbos or Yom Tov — even if carried out exclusively by non-Jewish workers — would not be permissible. “Your request to permit dairy production on Shabbos by non-Jews raises a number of halachic concerns… Running the plants on Shabbos could undermine their kashrus certification,” the letter stated. The rabbonim also stressed that Shabbos is “a covenant between the Creator and His people,” adding that dairies have ample time to prepare in advance, as they have done in previous years, to prevent shortages.
Chief Rabbinate Director-General Yehuda Cohen pushed back against accusations aimed at the Rabbinate. “This is a fight that really has nothing to do with us, but it’s always easy to blame the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. For 77 years, food factories in Israel have not desecrated Shabbos, and there are halachic-technical solutions for the farms,” he explained.
Cohen further noted that “this is really an argument between the Finance Ministry and the farmers over the base price of milk. The last time this happened, about two years ago, the finance minister lowered tariffs on imported milk, and the Rabbinate created a structured import protocol within five days.” He added that as of now, no import requests for milk have been submitted. “The claim that there is a shortage of milk is false, and so is the story that six million liters will be dumped because production cannot run on Shabbos and Yom Tov. This whole issue has nothing to do with the Rabbinate,” Cohen emphasized.
Last week, Minister Dichter had appealed to the chief rabbis, asking for a special exemption to allow partial dairy production during Shabbos and Yomim Tovim, handled solely by non-Jewish staff. He warned that without this exception, approximately six million liters of raw milk would go to waste and another five million liters of regulated milk would fail to reach consumers. “This is a necessary step to ensure food security,” Dichter wrote, cautioning that the shortages already being felt in recent months could intensify during the string of upcoming Yomim Tovim.
{Matzav.com Israel}
