Officials Share New Analysis of Iran Strike, and Zohran Mamdani Talks Next Steps
Hosted by Will Jarvis
Produced by Will Jarvis and Ian Stewart
Edited by Ian Stewart and Jessica Metzger
Featuring Emma Bubola
In New Assessment, C.I.A. Chief Says U.S. Strikes 'Severely Damaged' Iranian Program, by Julian E. Barnes, Mark Mazzetti and Maggie Haberman
Supreme Leader's Absence Raises Alarm in Iran, by Farnaz Fassihi
Mamdani Reflects on His Astonishing Rise and the Challenges Ahead, by Emma G. Fitzsimmons
What to Know About the Antigovernment Protests in Kenya, by Pranav Baskar
With Bezos Wedding, Venice Braces for Love in the Time of Tech Billionaires, by Emma Bubola
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Associated Press
28 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Pentagon leaders double down on the destruction from US attacks on Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's top leaders doubled down Thursday on how destructive the U.S. attacks had been on Iran's nuclear facilities and described in detail the study and planning behind the bombing mission. In a rare Pentagon news briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to shift the debate from whether the nuclear targets were 'obliterated,' as President Donald Trump has said, to what they portrayed as the heroism of the strikes as well as the extensive research and preparation that went into carrying them out. 'You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,' Hegseth said in an often combative session with the media. He said once more an early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, a part of the Defense Department, was preliminary and that the report acknowledged there was low confidence and gaps in information. Hegseth scolded reporters for 'breathlessly' focusing on that intelligence assessment and said such stories were just attempts to undermine the Republican president. That intelligence report said that while the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities did significant damage, the sites were not totally destroyed and that Tehran's program was only set back by a few months. U.S. stealth bombers dropped 12 deep penetrator bombs on Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment site and two on Natanz, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. Despite the sheer tonnage of weaponry used on Fordo, the DIA report said the sites were not totally destroyed. At the briefing, Caine described the 15 years of study by two Defense Threat Reduction Agency officers to create a bomb that could penetrate the Fordo nuclear facility being built deep underground by Iran. Over time, he said, the department had many people with Ph.D.s working on the program, 'doing modeling and simulation that we were quietly and in a secret way the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America.' The pilots of the bombers involved in the weekend strikes described the flash after the bomb drop as 'the brightest explosion they had ever seen,' Caine said. At the briefing, Hegseth responded to some questions by personally attacking the reporter or the press as a whole. Asked repeatedly whether any of the nuclear material was moved out of the Iranian facilities, Hegseth acknowledged that the Pentagon was 'looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where. 'I'm not aware of any intelligence that says things were not where they were supposed to be' or that they were moved, Hegseth said. ___ Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
Fox News
28 minutes ago
- Fox News
Hegseth tears into reporters, alleging they 'cheer against Trump' and Iran strikes
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth excoriated reporters at a Pentagon press briefing on Thursday, accusing them of rooting for the failure of President Donald Trump and the military's recent strikes against Iran's three key nuclear sites. Hegseth addressed recent media reports citing a leaked low-confidence preliminary report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that suggested U.S. strikes against Iran likely put the country back mere months. "You, the press, specifically you, the press corps, because you cheer against Trump so hard," he said. "It's like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad. You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren't effective." A DIA source previously told Fox News that the "low confidence" assessment was based on just "one day's worth of intelligence reporting" and more intelligence has been gathered in the days since through other sources and methods. Hegseth accused the press of misrepresenting the facts. "Maybe the way the Trump administration is represented isn't true. So let's take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it," Hegseth said of the media. "Spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful." He also criticized the media for not shining a light on the American service members who carried out the strikes on Saturday and defended Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar from Iran's counterattack. Hegseth then chided reporters, alleging "the fake news" of acting irresponsibly with their coverage, saying "classified information is leaked or peddled for political purposes to try to make the president look bad." "What's really happening is you're undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots and incredible F-35 pilots and incredible refueling and incredible air defenders who accomplished their mission, set back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed," he said. "How about we celebrate that?" Hegseth described the Iranian nuclear sites targeted in Operation Midnight Hammer were "destroyed," "defeated," and "obliterated" in what he called "a historically successful attack." "We should celebrate it as Americans, and it gives us a chance to have peace, chance to have a deal and an opportunity to prevent a nuclear Iran, which is something President Trump talked about for 20 years," he said. "And no other presidents had the courage to actually do so."
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Video shows stampede at Tel Aviv memorial event, not Israelis fleeing to bunkers
'Israeli Settlers fleeing to Bunkers as Iranian missiles being to arrive,' reads part of the caption of a video shared on Facebook on June 15, 2025. The video shows people running in different directions in an open area, leaving behind white chairs. The post was shared two days after Israel started firing missiles at Iran on June 13, hitting nuclear and military sites as well as residential areas, prompting counterattacks from Tehran (archived here and here). The United States also used bunker-busting bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities, which was followed by an Iranian missile attack targeting a US military base in Qatar (archived here). Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 610 civilians and wounded more than 4,700, according to the health ministry. Iran's attacks on Israel have killed 28 people, according to official figures and rescuers. A fragile ceasefire came into effect on June 24, 2025, bringing an end to 12 days of fighting. However, the video circulated on social media does not show Israelis fleeing to bunkers for shelter. AFP Fact Check extracted keyframes from the video to conduct reverse image searches. This led to the original version, shared on X on April 30, 2025 – weeks before the warfare started (archived here). According to its caption, the video showed a stampede that happened at a Yom Hazikaron event in Tel Aviv, which left 20 people injured. Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day, pays tribute to soldiers killed in the line of duty and to victims of attacks in Israel. ️Chaos at Tel Aviv Hostage Memorial as Police Clash Sparks Stampede At a Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv, two Palestinian Israeli ushers were assaulted and arrested by police, triggering panic and a stampede that left 20 people lightly injured.#Israel# — Xnews_with_Grok (@Xnews_with_grok) April 30, 2025 An internet search of the keywords 'Tel Aviv + memorial + stampede' led to a news report by a local newspaper Israel Hayom that includes the same video as the one in the claim (archived here). The stampede, it reported, happened because event staff were misidentified as "suspicious individuals wearing vests" while trying to enter a memorial ceremony in Tel Aviv. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked several other false claims related to the Israel-Iran war, such as here, here and here.
