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WILD SCENE: Amid the ongoing protests in Kenya, footage shows a police officer opening fire directly at demonstrators.

Massive protests in Kenya to mark the one-year anniversary of protests against a tax bill that turned deadly.

Iran International released a video map exposing the locations of Israeli airstrikes across over 50 Iranian cities, struck within just 12 days.

The IDF has withdrawn the 252nd Reserve Division from the central and northern Gaza Strip area, after four and a half months of operations. The division operated in the Netzarim Corridor area and some of Gaza City’s eastern neighborhoods, during which it killed numerous terror operatives, demolished six kilometers worth of tunnels, and destroyed dozens of other Hamas infrastructures.

Speaking from the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday, President Trump disclosed that Israeli operatives had been dispatched to assess the damage at the Iranian nuclear sites hit in the recent U.S. airstrikes. According to Trump, those operatives confirmed that the facilities were completely destroyed. He also maintained that the operation had been executed so swiftly that Iran had no time to extract any enriched uranium.

Trump continued to push back against leaked intelligence indicating that Iran’s nuclear program could potentially recover within a few months. He repeated his stance that the attack had crippled Iran’s capabilities for years to come. “Israel is doing a report on it now, I understand, and I was told that they said it was total obliteration,” Trump said to reporters.

“You know they have guys that go in there after the hit, and they said it was total obliteration,” he added. “I believe it was total obliteration.”

Trump argued that the enriched uranium being processed at the targeted sites could not have been evacuated before the assault. “They didn’t have a chance to get anything out because 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 for them to remove it,” he said.

He also emphasized that Tehran had advance warning that a strike might be imminent, which likely deterred personnel from remaining at the sites. “Plus they knew we were coming, and if they know we’re coming, they’re not going to be down there.”

He went on to assert that Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been thrown off course for “basically decades,” though he made clear that if the regime attempted to restart its program, the U.S. would not hesitate to act again. “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover, and we won’t let that happen,” Trump declared.

“Number one, militarily, we won’t. I think we’ll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran. I see it. Look, I’ve had a relationship over the last four days. They agreed to the ceasefire, and it was a very equal agreement. They both said that’s enough.”

His remarks came in response to a classified report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that was leaked to CNN. The assessment suggested that Iran’s nuclear program could be rebuilt within a few months. The White House strongly refuted the findings.

“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.

She added, “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.”

{Matzav.com}

NEW YORK — Declaring “Tonight, we made history,” 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani claimed victory Tuesday night in the city’s hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary, becoming the presumptive nominee and front-runner to be New York City’s first Muslim mayor.

With 93% of the ballots tallied, Mamdani led the pack with 43.5% of the vote, pulling ahead of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had been widely considered the frontrunner until recent weeks. Cuomo conceded after trailing at 36.4%, acknowledging the insurgent candidate’s unexpected surge.

“I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City,” Mamdani told a jubilant crowd of supporters.

While Mamdani’s campaign has focused heavily on economic issues, such as the city’s spiraling grocery prices—proposing a publicly owned grocery chain to drive down costs—it is his record on Israel and statements about Jewish issues that have ignited a firestorm of controversy throughout the race.

Despite his efforts to center the campaign around bread-and-butter concerns, Mamdani’s long history of anti-Israel activism has drawn deep criticism from Jewish organizations, elected officials, and concerned citizens alike.

On October 8, 2023—just one day after Hamas launched its bloody massacre in southern Israel—Mamdani issued a public statement condemning Israel while avoiding any direct criticism of Hamas.

“I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours. Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba will undoubtedly lead to more violence and suffering in the days and weeks to come. The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid,” Mamdani wrote.

It was only later that he described the October 7 attacks as a “horrific war crime,” adding, “My support for Palestinian liberation should never be confused for a celebration of the loss of civilian life.”

The state legislator has also become known for defending the phrase “Globalize the Intifada,” a slogan widely perceived as a call for expanding the violent anti-Israel uprisings of the early 2000s. When questioned about its use, Mamdani offered a historical framing: “The very word [intifada] has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle.”

This defense sparked widespread outrage. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a stern rebuke, calling Mamdani’s invocation of the Holocaust “outrageous” and “especially offensive to survivors.”

In a follow-up statement, Mamdani doubled down: “As the highest profile Muslim candidate in NY history, I feel an obligation to speak out against violence and against bad faith or misinformed efforts to manipulate language in ways that only contribute to the division we’re seeking to overcome. I’ve repeatedly condemned any calls for violence.” He added that the slogan “is not the language that I use,” but argued, “the role of the mayor is not to police language.”

Throughout his political career, Mamdani has been a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2021, he posted: “We pay our electeds with our tax $$$ to represent us but they go on paid-for trips to Israel. We have 3 letters for them: #BDS. Every elected must be pressured to stand with Palestinians, oppose Apartheid & assert that the fight for dignity knows no exception.”

That same year, he told the Muslim Democratic Club of New York: “Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore. There are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.”

Mamdani has also refused to clearly state whether he would promote BDS policies as mayor. And while the movement targets Israel, Mamdani has not advocated for boycotting any other country.

His associations have drawn further scrutiny. In April, he appeared in a livestream with Hasan Piker, a left-wing influencer who has been accused of making antisemitic remarks, including offensive descriptions of Orthodox Jews and Holocaust-related mockery. Asked about his choice to appear with Piker, Mamdani responded: “I am willing to speak to each and every person about this campaign, and I’ve said that from the beginning.”

As a lawmaker, Mamdani was one of just five members of the New York State Assembly who declined to sign resolutions honoring Israel or commemorating the Holocaust. When pressed, he cited an internal office policy of not signing onto emailed resolutions and said he had voted for Holocaust remembrance resolutions in past years. “I understand this has caused pain and confusion for many,” he said.

He has also authored the “Not on Our Dime!” Act—legislation aimed at prohibiting charitable donations from supporting Israeli military operations or settlement activity. Although the bill has virtually no path forward in Albany, Mamdani has promoted it as one of his marquee achievements. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie publicly criticized the bill, a rare move, and 66 legislators signed a letter calling it “a ploy to demonize Jewish charities with connections to Israel.”

The lawmakers warned that the bill threatened organizations “with wide ranging missions from feeding the poor to providing emergency medical care for victims of terrorism to clothing orphans.”

Mamdani has also taken heat for his actions and rhetoric following the October 7 attack. On October 13, he rallied outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home, urging action “against the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians as we sit on the brink of a genocide.” He has since repeatedly used the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza—terminology strongly condemned by the Anti-Defamation League.

In the weeks following Hamas’s massacre, Mamdani flooded social media with pro-Palestinian content, and he was arrested during protests in New York. He has criticized lawmakers who attend Israel Day Parades and has taken credit for helping block a state resolution marking Israel’s Independence Day.

In a 2021 interview, Mamdani recounted: “Every year they introduced this resolution commending Israel’s day of independence, and this year, it was introduced, it was scheduled to go up, and I called the central staff of the assembly, and I made it clear that if this resolution were to come to the floor, I would speak in opposition… The resolution has yet to come to the floor.”

He added with a smile, “Just the fact of registering opposition—that business as usual cannot continue—is so, so important. We must not cede any ground to apartheid and to supporters of apartheid.”

As Mamdani prepares for a general election campaign, the Democratic Party—and the broader New York electorate—now faces a profound question: Can a candidate who has alienated large segments of the city’s Jewish population and openly supported movements considered by many as discriminatory still unify and lead America’s most diverse metropolis?

{Matzav.com}

At the NATO summit held in the Netherlands on Wednesday, President Trump drew a striking parallel between the recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear installations and the atomic bombings of Japan in World War II. He suggested that, like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the overwhelming force used in the recent military action brought the conflict to an end. “I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war,” Trump stated.

Trump maintained that his surprise offensive targeting Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure was the decisive factor in bringing about the cease-fire between Iran and Israel after nearly two weeks of hostilities. “Had we not succeeded with that hit, that hit ended the war,” Trump asserted, referring to the weekend airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites.

He further emphasized that without those precise attacks, the conflict would likely still be raging. “If we didn’t take that out, they would have been they’d be fighting right now,” Trump said.

Challenging internal government assessments, Trump reinforced his assertion that the strikes resulted in the complete destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. He dismissed reports that suggested Iran could rebuild its program in a matter of months, labeling them as inaccurate and misleading.

Trump also addressed concerns that Iran may have evacuated enriched uranium before the strikes, firmly rejecting that notion. “They didn’t have a chance to get anything out because 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 for them to remove it,” he said.

He added that the Iranians were aware of the possibility of an impending attack, which discouraged them from taking the risk of remaining at the targeted facilities. “Plus they knew we were coming, and if they know we’re coming, they’re not going to be down there.”

According to Trump, the damage inflicted was so severe that it has likely derailed Iran’s nuclear ambitions for many years to come. “They just went through hell. I think they’ve had it. The last thing they want to do is enrich,” he said. Trump concluded by predicting that Iran would never attempt to revive its nuclear efforts, saying, “they’ll ever do it again.”

{Matzav.com}

For her 6th grade honors class, math teacher Ana Sepúlveda wanted to make geometry fun. She figured her students “who live and breathe soccer” would be interested to learn how mathematical concepts apply to the sport. She asked ChatGPT for help. Within seconds, the chatbot delivered a five-page lesson plan, even offering a theme: “Geometry is everywhere in soccer — on the field, in the ball, and even in the design of stadiums!” It explained the place of shapes and angles on a soccer field. It suggested classroom conversation starters: Why are those shapes important to the game? It proposed a project for students to design their own soccer field or stadium using rulers and protractors. “Using AI has been a game changer for me,” said Sepúlveda, who teaches at a dual language school in Dallas and has ChatGPT translate everything into Spanish. “It’s helping me with lesson planning, communicating with parents and increasing student engagement.” Across the country, artificial intelligence tools are changing the teaching profession as educators use them to help write quizzes and worksheets, design lessons, assist with grading and reduce paperwork. By freeing up their time, many say the technology has made them better at their jobs. A poll released Wednesday by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found 6 in 10 U.S. teachers working in K-12 public schools used AI tools for their work over the past school year, with heavier use among high school educators and early-career teachers. It surveyed more than 2,000 teachers nationwide in April. Respondents who use AI tools weekly estimate they save them about six hours a week, suggesting the technology could help alleviate teacher burnout, said Gallup research consultant Andrea Malek Ash, who authored the report. States are issuing guidelines for using AI tools in classrooms As schools navigate concerns over student abuse of the technology, some are also are introducing guidelines and training for educators so teachers are aware of avoiding shortcuts that shortchange students. About two dozen states have state-level AI guidance for schools, but the extent to which it is applied by schools and teachers is uneven, says Maya Israel, an associate professor of educational technology and computer science education at the University of Florida. “We want to make sure that AI isn’t replacing the judgment of a teacher,” Israel said. If teachers are using chatbots for grading they should be aware the tools are good for “low-level” grading like multiple choice tests but less effective when nuance is required. There should be a way for students to alert teachers if the grading is too harsh or inconsistent, and the final grading decision needs to remain with the educator, she said. About 8 in 10 teachers who use AI tools say it saves them time on work tasks like making worksheets, assessments, quizzes or on administrative work. And about 6 in 10 teachers who use AI tools said they are improving the quality of their work when it comes to modifying student materials, or giving student feedback. “AI has transformed how I teach. It’s also transformed my weekends and given me a better work-life balance,” said Mary McCarthy, a high school social studies teacher in the Houston area who has used AI tools for help with lesson plans and other tasks. McCarthy said training she received from her school district on AI […]

The devastation wrought by Iran’s missile and drone assault on Israel over the past two weeks has resulted in an estimated NIS 5 billion ($1.47 billion) in property damage—roughly double the total damages recorded from the October 7 Hamas invasion and the subsequent 20 months of conflict combined, a top official revealed, the Times of Israel reports.

Amir Dahan, who heads the Compensation Department at Israel’s Tax Authority, told the Knesset Finance Committee that the unprecedented toll was due to the sheer force of the few Iranian missiles that breached Israel’s air defenses. “These are figures we have never seen for direct property damage,” he said. The limited number of successful strikes nevertheless caused widespread destruction, demolishing entire apartment complexes and triggering shockwaves that shattered windows across multiple city blocks.

As of Monday, claims related to Iran’s ballistic missile attacks had already reached NIS 4.5 billion ($1.32 billion), with estimates suggesting another half-billion shekels still to come. By contrast, total damages from October 7, including destruction from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, have added up to roughly NIS 2.5 billion ($735 million).

More than 40,000 claims tied to the latest escalation have been submitted so far, and officials expect that figure to climb past 50,000, particularly as factories and businesses continue to evaluate the impact. Whether that projection takes into account the ceasefire announced Tuesday morning—brokered by the United States—remains unclear.

Although the financial toll is greater, the current number of claims is still lower than the 70,000 filed between October 7, 2023, and June 12, 2025, reflecting the prolonged nature of the earlier conflict.

Israeli authorities report that Iran launched more than 550 ballistic missiles during the 12-day conflict. Just 31 of those missiles reached populated areas, yet the damage was severe. Tehran also launched roughly 1,000 drones; only one succeeded in striking a residential building—in Beit She’an. In addition to direct impacts, falling debris from interceptors and missile fragments contributed to damage in multiple locations.

Among the most damaging incidents were direct hits on the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and the Bazan oil refinery in Haifa. While specific damage estimates were not disclosed, Dahan acknowledged both were severely impacted.

Of the 38,700 damage claims submitted before Tuesday’s rocket attack in Beersheba, which destroyed a residential building and killed four people, about 31,000 were for structural damage, 3,700 for vehicles, and 4,000 for personal property such as appliances and furniture.

Tel Aviv accounted for roughly 25,000 of the total claims, followed by Ashkelon (10,800), Haifa and Acre (2,600), and Yerushalayim (94), based on partial Tax Authority data.

Roughly 11,000 people whose homes were rendered uninhabitable are currently being housed in hotels, while another 4,000 have found shelter with family or friends, according to the Federation of Local Authorities. The Interior Ministry recently confirmed that homeowners whose residences were destroyed or severely damaged in the war will not be responsible for paying property taxes during the period of displacement.

Before Israel launched its preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on June 13, the country’s property compensation fund held NIS 9 billion ($2.64 billion). Since then, the fund has received NIS 6 billion ($1.76 billion) in new claims related to the Iranian assault, in addition to NIS 1.5 billion ($440 million) still pending from the earlier round of fighting.

Dahan noted that 130 appraiser teams are actively deployed across the country, attempting to visit damage sites the same day claims are filed. A new digital platform has also been introduced, allowing residents to upload images of damage and receive compensation of up to NIS 30,000 ($8,815) within 72 hours.

Homeowners can also claim compensation for personal belongings: up to NIS 25,187 ($7,400) for furniture and NIS 30,914 ($9,084) for electronics. For larger claims, the government offers a supplemental insurance plan at an additional 0.3% premium on the declared value. While only 600 Israelis were enrolled in this plan before the current war, over 50,000 have joined since the launch of Operation Rising Lion, according to a Calcalist report.

The financial shockwave has rippled far beyond physical destruction. Economic paralysis due to emergency regulations has shuttered schools and businesses, prompting the Finance Ministry to unveil a comprehensive relief package for those affected.

Under the plan, small businesses earning less than NIS 300,000 ($86,000) annually will receive fixed continuity grants based on assessed damages. Larger businesses—with annual revenues up to NIS 400 million—will be eligible for partial reimbursement of their operational expenses, calculated between 7% and 22% of losses. Additionally, they will be refunded for up to 75% of their salary expenses tied to war-related disruptions.

The maximum compensation for businesses earning up to NIS 100 million ($28 million) has been set at NIS 600,000 ($172,000).

{Matzav.com Israel}

LAKEWOOD, NJ — For the third time in less than 24 hours, large portions of Lakewood were plunged into darkness as another major power outage struck the township Monday night, leaving over 3,000 Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) customers without electricity.

The blackout, caused by a blown circuit at a local substation, wreaked havoc across the eastern side of town, disrupting traffic, events, and daily life — and reigniting long-standing criticism of the utility provider.

The outage affected key residential and commercial zones, including Ridge Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue, and Oak Street. Multiple traffic lights in the area were rendered inoperable, creating dangerous driving conditions during peak evening hours.

Compounding the chaos, several wedding halls lost power mid-event, disrupting simchos and forcing guests and staff to scramble in the dark until generators could be procured.

The evening outage followed two earlier blackouts that struck the township in quick succession. Nearly 2,000 customers were left without power for several hours Tuesday afternoon, and more than 1,000 residents experienced outages early that same morning.

All told, thousands of homes and businesses in Lakewood faced power disruptions during a single 24-hour span — and during one of the hottest days of the year.

Temperatures soared past 100 degrees on Tuesday afternoon. With air conditioning units offline and refrigeration compromised, residents were left sweating and scrambling to preserve food and safety.

JCP&L’s failure to keep up with Lakewood’s growing power needs has once again come under fire. For years, residents and local officials have accused the company of falling dangerously behind in infrastructure upgrades, particularly as the town’s population — and electricity usage — continue to skyrocket. Summer after summer, power outages have become a grimly predictable pattern in Lakewood, especially during heatwaves when electricity demand surges.

“Every time the temperature rises, the grid collapses. It’s beyond unacceptable — it’s reckless,” one frustrated resident said. “We’re paying for service, not excuses.”

Despite repeated complaints, calls for action, and mounting pressure from the community, JCP&L has yet to demonstrate meaningful improvements in reliability. Tuesday’s blackouts, stacked back-to-back-to-back, have only deepened concerns over the utility’s ability — or willingness — to adequately serve Lakewood’s rapidly expanding population.

As residents contend with boiling homes, disrupted simchos, and melting freezers, the question remains: How many more outages will it take before JCP&L finally gets serious about keeping the lights on in Lakewood?

{Matzav.com}

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)