
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Issues New Warning: Ayatollah Absent - Erin Burnett OutFront - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Issues New Warning: Ayatollah Absent Erin Burnett OutFront 49 mins
Top Iranian officials issue a public warning as Ayatollah Khamenei is nowhere to be seen. Plus, Trump's CIA director and director of national intelligence back his claims that Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged. But, what happened to Iran's massive stashes of uranium?

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New York Post
22 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump's appeals court nominee responds to allegation he suggested DOJ say ‘f— you' to courts: ‘I'm not anybody's henchman'
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32 minutes ago
EU leaders meet to discuss tougher Russia sanctions, US tariffs and Middle East
BRUSSELS -- The heads of the European Union's 27 member nations will meet Thursday in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, ways to prevent painful new U.S. tariffs, and how to make their voices heard in the Middle East conflicts. Most of the leaders will arrive from a brief but intense NATO summit where they pledged a big boost in defense spending, and papered over some of their differences with U.S. President Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join the EU summit by videoconference, after meeting Trump on Wednesday. U.S.-led NATO downgraded Ukraine from a top priority to a side player this week, but Russia's war in Ukraine remains of paramount concern for the EU. Members will be discussing an 18th round of sanctions against Russia and whether to maintain a price cap on Russian oil, measures that some nations oppose because it could raise energy prices. Meanwhile, Trump's threatened tariffs are weighing on the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of all 27 member countries. He lashed out at Spain on Wednesday for not spending more on defense and suggested yet more tariffs. France's president called Trump to task for starting a trade war with longtime allies. European leaders are also concerned about fallout from the wars in the Middle East, and the EU is pushing to revive diplomatic negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. EU members have internal disagreements to overcome. They are divided over what to do about European policy toward Israel because of its conduct in Gaza. And left-leaning parties are attacking European Commissioner Ursula von Der Leyen's pivot away from the EU's climate leadership in favor of military investment. Defense and security are likely to top the agenda. The summit will end with a statement of conclusions that will set the agenda for the bloc for the next four months and can be seen as a bellwether for political sentiment in Europe on major regional and global issues.


New York Times
36 minutes ago
- New York Times
The Ayatollah Has a Plan
The United States' attack on Iran's nuclear sites last weekend, following a weeklong Israeli bombing campaign, has marked a turning point for Iran. Washington's involvement in the conflict represents one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979 and is a moment of truth for the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has maintained Iran's hostility to the West during his 36 years in power. Now the future of the country's nuclear program, and the fate of the tenuous cease-fire with Israel, rests in his hands — and even in the face of grave threat, he is unlikely to back down. Iran's rulers are no strangers to war. Many of the country's top leaders, including its president, foreign minister and key military figures, are veterans of Iran's long war with Iraq in the 1980s, a grinding struggle that cost Iran billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives. Under Ayatollah Khamenei, who served as president from 1981 to 1988 and became Iran's supreme leader in 1989, the lessons of that brutal conflict have come to undergird the regime's worldview — and its national security policy. As Ayatollah Khamenei sees it, Iran is locked in a struggle for survival with the United States and its allies, including Israel. The policies he has pursued in the decades since he came to power — domestic repression, nuclear expansion and support for proxy militias including Hamas and Hezbollah — have all been in the service of winning that contest. His distrust of Washington has only deepened since Donald Trump's 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran negotiated with the Obama administration. The Islamic Republic understands its limitations in this struggle. Its military is woefully inadequate in the face of more advanced U.S. weaponry. Its economy has been severely constrained by international sanctions. And in recent years, Iranians have revolted against the regime's policy of perpetual resistance against the West, as well as against the regime's repressive domestic policies. The United States has also maintained a robust presence in the region, with tens of thousands of troops stationed across a network of bases. If this history is anything to go by, Ayatollah Khamenei will not retreat, let alone surrender. He has, for now, accepted a cease-fire with Israel — but only because he is confident that Iran held its ground in the face of U.S. and Israeli strikes. In the past, too, he has made concessions when necessary. Tehran entered both the 2015 nuclear deal and the most recent round of nuclear negotiations with the United States in order to relieve economic pressure. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.