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President Donald Trump has explained why he so strongly believes that Iran’s nuclear program had been reduced to “total obliteration” — revealing that Israeli agents had entered the bombed sites to confirm the destruction firsthand. “Israel is doing a report on it now,” Trump told reporters. “I was told they said it was total obliteration. You know they have guys that go in there after the hit… and they said it was total obliteration.” The president doubled down on the effectiveness of the surprise airstrike, dismissing a leaked U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting Iran could resume enrichment within months. “They didn’t have a chance to get anything out,” Trump insisted. “We acted fast. If it would have taken two weeks, maybe. But it’s very hard to remove that kind of material — very hard, and very dangerous.” “Plus,” he added, “they knew we were coming, and if they know we’re coming, they’re not going to be down there.” The remarks come amid growing debate in Washington over the true extent of the damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear program after the U.S. dropped a wave of bunker-buster bombs on three key enrichment facilities. Trump, however, remained confident the mission dealt a historic blow. “It set them back basically decades,” he said. The White House has dismissed a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment — published by CNN — as both inaccurate and politically motivated. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the leak, calling it the work of “an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.” “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission,” Leavitt wrote. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Workers digging at Manhattan’s World Trade Center site 15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from a boat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier. Now, over 600 pieces from the 50-foot (15-meter) vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuries underground, the boat is becoming a museum exhibit. Arrayed like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor, research assistants and volunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin. Though researchers believe the ship was a gunboat built in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don’t know all the places it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore before ending up in a landfill around the 1790s. “The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,” said Michael Lucas, the museum’s curator of historical archaeology. “Because like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don’t have the whole story.” From landfill to museum piece The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space, so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation who is overseeing the rebuilding. On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: “Who would have thought in a million years, ‘someday, this is going to be in a museum?’” A nautical mystery remains Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. It was probably built hastily. The […]

Iran’s nuclear program has taken a substantial hit, according to Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who said in an interview on Tuesday that the country’s nuclear status has drastically changed following recent events.

Grossi, speaking to Fox News, remarked that Iran’s nuclear landscape today looks dramatically different from what it was before June 13. “It is clear that there is one Iran before June 13 — nuclear Iran — and one now,” Grossi said. “It is night and day.”

This drastic shift coincides with troubling news from the IAEA: nearly 900 pounds of uranium that could have been enriched is currently unaccounted for in Iran. The gap in tracking emerged in the wake of U.S. strikes on several critical Iranian nuclear facilities.

The United States military launched targeted attacks over the weekend on three major nuclear locations: Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. According to Grossi, the Natanz facility’s centrifuge hall sustained “very serious damage,” while the Isfahan site was also hit.

Asked about prior speculation that Iran may have transferred enriched uranium to a historical site near Isfahan, Grossi clarified the IAEA’s stance and cautioned against assumptions. “I have to be very precise…we are the IAEA, so we are not speculating here,” he said. “We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material.”

Iranian officials told the IAEA that they implemented what they termed “protective measures,” which, according to Grossi, “may or may not include moving around the material.” He called for full transparency, adding, “So, it is quite obvious you are asking me about it, that there is a question there: Where is this? So, the way to asserting that is to allow the inspection activity to resume as soon as possible. And I think this would be for the benefit of all.”

On the issue of enrichment levels, Grossi agreed with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who previously stated that uranium enriched to 60% is still a step below the 90% required for nuclear weapons. “I wouldn’t argue with that because 60% is not 90%,” Grossi noted, while stressing that the location of the missing uranium remains the top priority.

“My obligation is to account for every gram of uranium that exists in Iran and in any other country,” Grossi stated, asserting that the probe into the missing nuclear material is not a targeted action against Iran.

He wrapped up by affirming the IAEA’s continued commitment to oversight. “My job is to try to see where is this material, because Iran has an obligation to report and account for all the material that they have, and this is going to continue to be my work.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump issued a sharp rebuke Tuesday night in response to reports from CNN and The New York Times, which cited U.S. intelligence findings indicating that the recent strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure had not resulted in the complete destruction of the sites.

“Fake news CNN, together with the failing New York Times, have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history. The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed! Both the Times and CNN are getting slammed by the public!” Trump declared in a Truth Social post, pushing back against what he described as a smear campaign.

Trump also spotlighted a statement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who stood by the administration’s portrayal of the operation’s effectiveness. “Based on everything we have seen — and I’ve seen it all — our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons.”

Hegseth elaborated further, stating, “Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.”

Despite these declarations, both CNN and The New York Times reported that vital elements of Iran’s nuclear apparatus had survived the assault. According to their sources, while the strikes inflicted damage, they are believed to have delayed rather than dismantled Iran’s nuclear capabilities—possibly by just a few months.

In a strongly worded denial, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized CNN for publishing the findings, which she suggested were unreliable and politically motivated.

“FAKE NEWS CNN STRIKES AGAIN: This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” Leavitt posted on X.

She continued by accusing the media of seeking to discredit both President Trump and the military personnel behind the operation. “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.”

Leavitt concluded with a direct rebuttal of the intelligence claims: “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” she said.

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump on Wednesday will meet with members of a NATO alliance that he has worked to bend to his will over the years and whose members are rattled by his latest comments casting doubt on the U.S. commitment to its mutual defense guarantees. Trump’s comments en route to the Netherlands that his fidelity to Article 5 “depends on your definition” are likely to draw a spotlight at the NATO summit, as will the new and fragile Iran-Israel ceasefire that Trump helped broker after the U.S. unloaded airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the same time, the alliance is poised to enact one of Trump’s chief priorities for NATO: a pledge by its member countries to increase, sometimes significantly, how much they spend on their defense. “NATO was broke, and I said, ‘You’re going to have to pay,’” Trump said Tuesday. “And we did a whole thing, and now they’re paying a lot. Then I said, ‘You’re going to have to lift it to 4% or 5%, and 5% is better.’” Spending 5% of a country’s gross domestic product on defense is “good,” Trump pronounced, adding, “It gives them much more power.” The boost in spending follows years of Trump complaints that other countries weren’t paying their fair share for membership in an alliance created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Most NATO countries, with the key exception of Spain, are preparing to endorse the 5% pledge, motivated to bolster their own defenses not just by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but also, perhaps, to placate Trump. As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that he as president would not necessarily heed the alliance’s mutual defense guarantees outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. In March of this year, he expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the United States’ defense if needed, though the alliance did just that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. On Tuesday, he told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to The Hague for the summit that whether he is committed to Article 5 “depends on your definition.” “There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right?” Trump said. “But I’m committed to being their friends.” He signaled that he would give a more precise definition of what Article 5 means to him once he is at the summit. Trump also vented to reporters before leaving Washington about the actions by Israel and Iran after his announced ceasefire. He said, in his view, both sides had violated the nascent agreement. After Trump arrived in the Netherlands, news outlets, including The Associated Press, published stories revealing that a U.S. intelligence report suggested in an early assessment that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a few months by weekend strikes and was not “completely and fully obliterated,” as Trump had said. The White House called the report “flat-out wrong,” and Trump posted in all-caps on social media early Wednesday that any reporting that the strikes weren’t “completely destroyed” was an attempt to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history.” The White House has not said what other world leaders Trump would meet with one-on-one while in The Hague, but he said he was likely to cross paths with Ukrainian President Volodymyr […]

US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Israeli agents entered the Fordo nuclear facility after the US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Speaking to reporters from the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump denied reports that the US strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months “It was obliteration, and you’re going to see that,” he said. “Israel is going to report on it now.  I understand. And it was total obliteration. You know they have guys that go in there after the hit. And they said it was total obliteration.” However, Kan News reported Israeli officials as saying that they have no information about such an operation. Trump also praised Israel in his remarks, saying that he was “so proud of them” for calling off an extensive retaliatory strike against Iran on Tuesday, adding that Israel was “technically right” that Tehran violated the ceasefire. When a reporter asked if the US would attack Iran again if it rebuilt its nuclear sites, Trump responded, “Sure.” “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover. They’re not going to have a bomb, and they’re not going to enrich.” “I think we’ll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran,” he added. “Israel got hit very hard,” Trump said about the war. “Especially the last couple of days. Israel was hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy they took out a lot of buildings.” “And they’ve been great. Bibi Netanyahu should be very proud of himself.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and oil industry companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions to critical infrastructure or the economy. But that could change if the ceasefire between Iran and Israel collapses or if independent hacking groups supporting Iran make good on promises to wage their own digital conflict against the U.S., analysts and cyber experts say. The U.S. strikes could even prompt Iran, Russia, China and North Korea to double down on investments in cyberwarfare, according to Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor. Bellini noted that hacking operations are much cheaper than bullets, planes or nuclear arms — what defense analysts call kinetic warfare. America may be militarily dominant, he said, but its reliance on digital technology poses a vulnerability. “We just showed the world: You don’t want to mess with us kinetically,” said Bellini, CEO of Bellini Capital. “But we are wide open digitally. We are like Swiss cheese.” Hackers have hit banks and defense contractors Two pro-Palestinian hacking groups claimed they targeted more than a dozen aviation firms, banks and oil companies following the U.S. strikes over the weekend. The hackers detailed their work in a post on the Telegram messaging service and urged other hackers to follow their lead, according to researchers at the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the groups’ activity. The attacks were denial-of-service attacks, in which a hacker tries to disrupt a website or online network. “We increase attacks from today,” one of the hacker groups, known as Mysterious Team, posted Monday. Federal authorities say they are on guard for additional attempts by hackers to penetrate U.S. networks. The Department of Homeland Security issued a public bulletin Sunday warning of increased Iranian cyber threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement Tuesday urging organizations that operate critical infrastructure like water systems, pipelines or power plants to stay vigilant. While it lacks the technical abilities of China or Russia, Iran has long been known as a “chaos agent” when it comes to using cyberattacks to steal secrets, score political points or frighten opponents. Cyberattacks mounted by Iran’s government may end if the ceasefire holds and Tehran looks to avoid another confrontation with the U.S. But hacker groups could still retaliate on Iran’s behalf. In some cases, these groups have ties to military or intelligence agencies. In other cases, they act entirely independently. More than 60 such groups have been identified by researchers at the security firm Trustwave. These hackers can inflict significant economic and psychological blows. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, for instance, hackers penetrated an emergency alert app used by some Israelis and directed it to inform users that a nuclear missile was incoming. “It causes an immediate psychological impact,” said Ziv Mador, vice president of security research at Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, which tracks cyberthreats. Economic disruption, confusion and fear are all the goals of such operations, said Mador, who is based in Israel. “We saw the same thing in Russia-Ukraine.” Collecting intelligence is another aim for hackers While Iran lacks the cyberwarfare capabilities of China or Russia, it has repeatedly tried to use its more modest operations to try to spy on foreign leaders — something national security experts predict Tehran is almost certain to try again as it seeks to suss out President Donald Trump’s next moves. Last year, federal authorities […]

IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that it’s too early to determine the results of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, but “the assessment is that we significantly harmed the program, setting it back by years.” Later on Wednesday, ABC News quoted Israeli sources as saying that the results of the strikes are still under assessment, but the strike on Fordo did not produce satisfactory results, saying the outcome there was “really not good.” The Israeli sources added that they do not have information about the amount of enriched uranium that Iran may have transferred prior to the strikes. A U.S. intelligence report on Tuesday suggests that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months after U.S. strikes and was not “completely and fully obliterated” as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment. The report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to the people, the report found that while the Sunday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, the facilities were not totally destroyed. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The assessment also suggests that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, and it found that Iran’s centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact, according to the people. At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, where U.S. B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, the assessment found. The people said that intelligence officials had warned of such an outcome in previous assessments ahead of the strike on Fordo. The White House strongly pushed back on the DIA assessment, calling it “flat-out wrong.” “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.” The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The Israeli government also has not released any official assessments of the U.S. strikes. Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said he has read damage assessment reports from U.S. intelligence and other nations, reiterated Tuesday night that the strikes had deprived Iran of the ability to develop a weapon and called it outrageous that the U.S. assessment was shared with reporters. “It’s treasonous so it ought to be investigated,” Witkoff said on Fox News Channel. The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Outside experts had suspected Iran had likely already hidden the core components of its nuclear program as it stared down […]

Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was spotted alive in Tehran, dispelling rumors that he was eliminated by Israel during the war. The New York Times reported at the beginning of the war that Qaani had been assassinated in Israel’s opening strikes targeting key military and nuclear sites along with targeted eliminations of Iran’s leading political figures and top nuclear scientists. However, the IDF did not name Qaani as a target and said that they have no information about reports of his elimination. As it turns out, Qaani, who succeeded Qassem Soleimani after the latter’s elimination in a US drone strike in 2020, was apparently in hiding. He emerged from his hideout following the ceasefire to take part in “victory” celebrations in Tehran. This isn’t the first time that the elusive commander was rumored to be dead, only to later appear at a public function. Speculatory reports in October 2024 said that Qaani was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, where he had traveled to support Hezbollah amid its war with Israel. Other reports speculated he may have suffered a heart attack or was being detained by Iranian authorities on suspicion of espionage. However, footage later emerged showing Qaani in attendance at a funeral service in Karbala, Iraq, for senior Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike a month earlier. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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Just hours after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran took effect, the Iranian judiciary system in Tehran announced a series of new legal measures, centered on a dramatic tightening of espionage laws—a move designed to facilitate authorities in penalizing citizens suspected of ties with Israel or of expressing criticism against the regime. According to the spokesman’s announcement, the “redefinition of the crime of espionage” grants the authorities almost unlimited powers to arrest and convict citizens based on mere suspicions and without the legal process restrictions that were previously in place. The announcement reflects the regime’s goal to regain control—at any cost. As of Wednesday, 700 people had been arrested since the beginning of the war for ties to Israel. Iran also executed three prisoners on Wednesday over allegedly collaborating with Israel’s Mossad in smuggling “assassination equipment” into the country, its state-run IRNA news agency reported. Iran previously executed three people during the war with Israel. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

Defense Minister Yisrael Katz delivered an extended security briefing on Tuesday to the members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Kiryah in Tel Aviv, which mainly focused on the IDF’s activities during the war against Iran. At the meeting, Katz revealed that one of the reasons for the launch of the war was that Iran had planned a surprise attack on Israel. “The Iranians planned to act first and launch between 400 and 500 missiles in the opening strike,” he said. “If we hadn’t acted first, it would have been far worse for us.” He added that the main challenge in the operation was opening the skies and thwarting Iran’s air defense systems: “We controlled the skies and could have continued, but we decided in advance to achieve the objectives and end strongly.” He added, “We made a distinction during the war and harmed more Revolutionary Guard operatives than soldiers in the Iranian army. While we wanted to eliminate Khamenei, he hid.” “We met 100% of the operation’s objectives in Iran,” he said, noting that most of the operation was carried out by Israel alone, while the US joined only in the final stage. “The Americans faced three options—to join, to prevent, or to approve. They chose the third option: they gave a green light and later also joined.” Regarding the phone call between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump over Israel’s strike on Iran following its violation of the ceasefire, Katz joked, “If Trump had woken up 15 minutes later, the attack this morning would have been stronger.” Katz also mentioned that Netanyahu is expected to travel to the US to influence the formulation of a nuclear agreement. “Netanyahu will fly to the United States to formulate the agreements with the Americans on Iran. Right now, it’s just a ceasefire. We must remember that Trump canceled the central sanction on Iran to sell oil to the Chinese, and Iran may become stronger again as a result.” He emphasized that there was no goal to overthrow the Ayatollah regime: “Harming elements of the regime was not part of the goals—it happened incidentally.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

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The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced Wednesday morning that seven Israeli soldiers were killed in action during operations in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The military released the identities of six of the fallen.

• Lieutenant Matan Shai Yashinovski, 21, from Kfar Yona, served as a platoon leader in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, part of the 188th Brigade. He died during combat in the southern Gaza area.

• Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe, 20, a native of Rehovot and member of the same battalion and brigade, also fell in the line of duty during fighting in southern Gaza.

• Staff Sergeant Niv Radia, age 20, from Elyakhin, was likewise killed while serving in the 605th Battalion of the 188th Brigade.

• Sergeant Ronen Shapiro, 19, from Mazkeret Batya, lost his life during the same combat engagement, also serving in the 605th Battalion.

• Sergeant Shahar Manoav, 21, from Ashkelon, perished while participating in the same military operation.

• Sergeant Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, 20, a resident of Eshhar, was another member of the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion who fell in the same incident.

The identity of a seventh soldier who was also killed has not yet been cleared for public release and will be shared once permitted.

According to an initial assessment conducted by the IDF, the soldiers were traveling in an armored personnel carrier when a terrorist approached and attached an explosive charge to the vehicle. The resulting blast ignited the carrier, and all personnel on board were killed in the explosion.

In a separate clash that occurred on Tuesday, another soldier from the 605th Battalion of the 188th Brigade sustained critical injuries while engaged in fighting in southern Gaza.

The wounded soldier was transported to a hospital for urgent care. His family has been informed of his condition.

{Matzav.com Israel}

The IDF has released the names of six soldiers who were killed during combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip. Their families have been notified, and their names have now been cleared for publication. The fallen are: * Lieutenant Matan Shai Yashinovski, 21, from Kfar Yona, a platoon commander in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe, 20, from Rehovot, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Staff Sergeant Niv Radia, 20, from Elyakhin, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Ronen Shapiro, 19, from Mazkeret Batya, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Shahar Manoav, 21, from Ashkelon, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, 20, from Eshhar, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. The IDF noted that in the same incident where these six soldiers fell, a seventh soldier was also killed. His name has not yet been cleared for publication and will be released once permitted. In a separate incident on Tuesday, a soldier from the same battalion — the 605th of the 188th Brigade — was severely wounded during combat in southern Gaza. He was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, and his family has been notified. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has taken a commanding lead in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, powered by strong backing from young voters and progressives. His rise puts him on track to potentially become the first Muslim to lead America’s largest city.

Although the Associated Press had not yet declared a victor in Tuesday’s primary contest, Andrew Cuomo acknowledged the likely outcome at his campaign event, telling his supporters that Mamdani “won.”

The 33-year-old Queens assemblyman, originally born in Uganda, led the crowded field of eleven Democratic contenders, including Cuomo, a former three-term governor. Ranked-choice voting determined the outcome of the race, and Mamdani emerged at the top, giving him a clear edge going into November’s general election in deep-blue New York City.

“Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night, and he put together a great campaign,” Cuomo stated Tuesday. “He touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote. He really ran a highly impactful campaign. I called him. I congratulated him. I applaud him sincerely for his effort.”

Cuomo continued his praise for Mamdani, saying he had run “a really smart and good and impactful campaign. Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won.”

As early vote tallies showed Mamdani in the lead, Cuomo addressed his supporters and indicated that his campaign would be evaluating its next steps, focused on what might best serve the city and the Democratic Party going forward.

“Now I want to look at all the numbers, as they come in and this ranked choice voting and, what the numbers actually say and do,” Cuomo said.

Following his speech, a spokesperson for Cuomo said the door was open to the possibility of him entering the race as an independent candidate in the November election.

“I want to look at all the numbers as they come in and analyze the rank choice voting. I will then consult with my colleagues on what is the best path for me to help the City of New York, as I have already qualified to run for mayor on an independent line in November,” Cuomo noted in a follow-up statement.

In a strategic alliance ahead of the primary, Mamdani teamed up with City Comptroller Brad Lander to unify the progressive vote and present a strong challenge to Cuomo. Their collaboration helped consolidate support among left-leaning voters under the ranked-choice voting system.

According to preliminary data from the Board of Elections, the combined support for Mamdani and Lander may prove decisive as the ranked-choice rounds are processed. The Associated Press reported that tabulations would not begin until July 1, meaning the final outcome may take time to confirm.

Mamdani’s policy platform included ambitious proposals such as fare-free bus service citywide, making CUNY tuition-free, a rent freeze on public housing, and free childcare for children up to age five. His campaign got a significant boost after receiving the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

That endorsement was followed by a second key nod from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a prominent national progressive and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination.

With a field full of progressive candidates, the endorsements from Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders helped steer a critical mass of left-wing support toward Mamdani, giving him the momentum to surge ahead.

Once trailing in the polls, Mamdani saw a rapid rise in support in recent weeks, closing the gap with Cuomo and eventually overtaking him.

As the primary drew to a close, Cuomo’s campaign stepped up its criticisms of Mamdani, describing him as lacking the experience needed to govern, while pointing to Cuomo’s extensive leadership during crises including the pandemic and conflicts with Trump.

“The mayor of the city of New York is the CEO of one of the largest corporations on the globe. This is not a job for a novice,” Cuomo warned ahead of primary day. “This is not a job… for on-the-job training. We need someone who knows what they’re doing on day one because your lives depend on it.”

Cuomo also strongly condemned Mamdani’s statements about Israel, accusing him of crossing a line into rhetoric that was offensive to Jews.

“We are against calls to globalize the intifada, declaring open season on Jewish people. We are against those who would glorify Hamas terrorists, who are destined to kill Jewish people,” Cuomo said during his final remarks before the vote, criticizing Mamdani’s record.

Despite the late-stage attacks, voters across New York City appeared to rally around Mamdani, who is now set to appear on the general election ballot in November.

In the next stage of the race, Mamdani will go up against Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels. This marks Sliwa’s second consecutive run as the GOP’s candidate for mayor.

Also running will be current Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking reelection as an independent. Earlier this year, Adams exited the Democratic primary amid declining approval ratings.

Adams’ popularity had already been slipping when he was indicted last year on bribery and fraud charges. Prosecutors accused him of taking part in a years-long scheme involving illicit dealings with foreign officials.

Despite the legal trouble, Adams made repeated gestures toward Trump and saw the charges dropped by the Justice Department, potentially paving the way for cooperation with the Trump administration’s tougher approach to illegal immigration.

{Matzav.com}

Initial findings from U.S. intelligence suggest that the recent airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, carried out after earlier Israeli actions, fell short of the Trump administration’s claims of completely demolishing Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure.

According to reporting from CNN and The New York Times, officials with access to the classified intelligence say that Iran’s nuclear program remains largely functional. While the strikes may have delayed Iran’s progress, the interruption is estimated to last only a few months.

A key report by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contradicts the administration’s public narrative. Despite President Donald Trump declaring that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s enrichment capabilities and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying Iran’s nuclear program “have been obliterated,” the DIA’s evaluation suggests the effect was far more limited.

Officials familiar with the matter told CNN that Iran had already moved a significant portion of its enriched uranium before the attacks. Furthermore, the centrifuges—which are vital to the enrichment process—sustained little to no damage. At facilities like Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, most of the destruction was reportedly confined to above-ground installations such as electrical grids.

The New York Times added that while entrances to some sites were blocked, the underground fortifications remained structurally sound. In Isfahan, Tomahawk missiles were employed, as there were doubts that even the most powerful bunker-busting bombs would be effective against the deeply buried structures.

In response to CNN’s coverage, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a scathing rebuke.

“FAKE NEWS CNN STRIKES AGAIN: This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” she posted on X.

She went on to say, “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” Leavitt emphasized.

General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, adopted a more restrained approach. He said it remains “way too early” to determine if Iran’s nuclear arsenal is fully intact, though he acknowledged the targeted locations “sustained severe damage and destruction.”

{Matzav.com}

Mamdani’s early-vote edge is powered by the East River corridor in western Queens and Brooklyn, but he’s also scoring key wins in Hispanic pockets like Washington Heights and Corona and Asian enclaves such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst.

On Tuesday, IDF Chief of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir gathered the General Staff Forum for a strategic review in light of the recently initiated ceasefire with Iran.

Zamir emphasized the transitional nature of the moment, stating: “We have concluded a significant phase, but the campaign against Iran is not over. We are entering a new phase based on the achievements of the current one. We’ve set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same applies to its missile program.”

He praised the military’s execution and coordination during the strikes. “The IDF performed at its best — the Intelligence Directorate delivered unprecedented intelligence achievements. IAF pilots operated with courage, while putting their lives at risk, thousands of kilometers from Israeli territory and struck and destroyed military targets. The Aerial Defense Array and communication units operated with their unique operational capabilities to protect the home front. Home Front Command personnel acted with ingenuity to save lives — all coordinated under the Operations Directorate. Every command, directorate, and branch contributed to the success of the operation — whether through direct participation in the Iran operation or through robust defense in their respective arenas,” he said.

Zamir cautioned against complacency, urging continued vigilance. “Despite the phenomenal achievement — we must keep our feet on the ground. Many challenges still lie ahead. We must stay focused, there’s no time to rest on our laurels.”

Looking ahead, he pointed to Israel’s ongoing mission in Gaza as the next priority. “Now the focus shifts back to Gaza — to bring the hostages home and to dismantle the Hamas regime. I am proud to have the privilege to command the organization through this period,” Zamir concluded.

{Matzav.com Israel}