While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 23, 2025
US House Speaker Mike Johnson was one of the lawmakers allegedly notified of the US military action ahead of time. PHOTO: REUTERS
While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 23, 2025
US lawmakers call for Congress to review Trump's Iran actions
Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers on June 22 called on Congress to rein in President Donald Trump's use of military force in Iran and prevent US involvement in a deepening Middle East conflict.
With Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives strongly backing the US attacks on key Iranian nuclear sites, it seemed unlikely any resolution that asserts the power of Congress to declare war and restricts Mr Trump's actions could pass both chambers.
US Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said he expects to force the Senate to vote this week on his measure requiring Mr Trump to terminate hostilities against Iran unless explicitly authorised by a declaration of war from Congress. Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California said they want a vote on similar legislation they introduced in the House.
'This is the US jumping into a war of choice at Donald Trump's urging, without any compelling national security interest for the United States to act in this way, particularly without a debate and vote in Congress,' Mr Kaine told CBS' Face the Nation programme.
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Satellite images undermine Trump's claim that Iran's atomic sites were destroyed
President Donald Trump's decision to order US forces to attack three key Iranian nuclear installations may have sabotaged the Islamic Republic's known atomic capabilities, but it's also created a monumental new challenge to work out what's left and where.
Mr Trump said heavily fortified sites were 'totally obliterated' late on June 21, but independent analysis has yet to verify that claim. Rather than yielding a quick win, the strikes have complicated the task of tracking uranium and ensuring Iran doesn't build a weapon, according to three people who follow the country's nuclear programme.
International Atomic Energy Agency monitors remain in Iran and were inspecting more than one site a day before Israel started the bombing campaign on June 13.
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At least 20 killed in suicide bombing at Damascus church
At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighbourhood of Syria's capital Damascus on June 22, health authorities and security sources said.
The incident marks the first suicide bombing inside Damascus since Mr Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December.
Syria's interior ministry said the suicide bomber was a member of the terror group Islamic State.
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12 arrested as wave of syringe attacks mar France street music festival
French police have detained twelve suspects after 145 people reported being pricked with syringes during the country's annual street music festival, officials said June 22.
Millions of people took to the streets across France on the evening of June 21 for the Fete de la Musique, with authorities reporting 'unprecedented crowds' in Paris.
Before the party, posts on social media had called for women to be targeted during the festivities.
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Carlos Alcaraz beats Jiri Lehecka in Queen's final to send Wimbledon statement
Top seed Carlos Alcaraz edged out Czech Jiri Lehecka 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 to claim his second Queen's Club title on June 22 and send out a powerful statement ahead of his Wimbledon defence.
The 22-year-old Spaniard, who triumphed at Queen's a few weeks before claiming his first Wimbledon title in 2023, extended his winning streak to 18 matches but was pushed hard by Lehecka, who underlined his own credentials as a rising force.
Alcaraz pounced at 5-5 to break the Lehecka serve and duly bagged the opening set in 45 minutes.
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AsiaOne
17 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
UN Security Council meets on Iran as Russia, China push for a ceasefire, World News
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council met on Sunday (June 22) to discuss US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. "The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. "We must act — immediately and decisively — to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear programme." The world awaited Iran's response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had "obliterated" Tehran's key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. Russia and China condemned the US strikes. "Peace in the Middle East cannot be achieved by the use of force," said China's UN Ambassador Fu Cong. "Diplomatic means to address the Iranian nuclear issue haven't been exhausted, and there's still hope for a peaceful solution." But acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the council the time had come for Washington to act decisively, urging the Security Council to call upon Iran to end its effort to eradicate Israel and terminate its drive for nuclear weapons. "Iran long obfuscated its nuclear weapons programme and stonewalled our good-faith efforts in recent negotiations," she said. "The Iranian regime cannot have a nuclear weapon." Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia recalled former US Secretary of State Colin Powell making the case at the UN Security Council in 2003 that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of the country's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. "Again we're being asked to believe the US's fairy tales, to once again inflict suffering on millions of people living in the Middle East. This cements our conviction that history has taught our US colleagues nothing," he said. Cost of inaction 'catastrophic' Iran requested the UN Security Council meeting on Sunday. Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani accused Israel and the US of destroying diplomacy, said all US allegations are unfounded and that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty "has been manipulated into a political weapon." "Instead of guaranteeing parties' legitimate rights to peaceful nuclear energy, it has been exploited as a pretext for aggression and unlawful action that jeopardise the supreme interests of my country," Iravani told the council. Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon praised the US for taking action against Iran, saying: "This is what the last line of defence looks like when every other line has failed." He accused Iran of using negotiations over its nuclear programme as camouflage to buy time to build missiles and enrich uranium. "The cost of inaction would have been catastrophic. A nuclear Iran would have been a death sentence just as much for you as it would have been for us," he told the council. It was not immediately clear when the council could vote on the draft resolution. Russia, China and Pakistan have asked council members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass. The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran's nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel. "Military action alone cannot bring a durable solution to concerns about Iran's nuclear programme," Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council. "We urge Iran now to show restraint, and we urge all parties to return to the negotiating table and find a diplomatic solution which stops further escalation and brings this crisis to an end." UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said that while craters were visible at Iran's enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, "no one — including the IAEA — is in a position to assess the underground damage." Grossi told the Security Council that entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran's sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again. "Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites," said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency. [[nid:719362]]
AsiaOne
19 minutes ago
- AsiaOne
Satellite images indicate severe damage to Fordow, but doubts remain, World News
WASHINGTON — Commercial satellite imagery indicates the US attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged — and possibly destroyed — the deeply-buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but there was no confirmation, experts said on Sunday (June 22). "They just punched through with these MOPs," said David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the US said it dropped. "I would expect that the facility is probably toast." But confirmation of the below-ground destruction could not be determined, noted Decker Eveleth, an associate researcher with the CNA Corporation who specialises in satellite imagery. The hall containing hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he said. To defend against attacks such as the one conducted by US forces early on Sunday, Iran buried much of its nuclear programme in fortified sites deep underground, including into the side of a mountain at Fordow. Satellite images show six holes where the bunker-busting bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain, and then ground that looks disturbed and covered in dust. The United States and Israel have said they intend to halt Tehran's nuclear programme. But a failure to completely destroy its facilities and equipment could mean Iran could more easily restart the weapons programme that US intelligence and the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say it shuttered in 2003. 'Unusual activity' Several experts also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike early Sunday morning and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the US and UN nuclear inspectors. They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the near weapons-grade 60 per cent highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the US attack. "I don't think you can with great confidence do anything but set back their nuclear programme by maybe a few years," said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "There's almost certainly facilities that we don't know about." Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat and member of the Senate intelligence committee who said he had been reviewing intelligence every day, expressed the same concern. "My big fear right now is that they take this entire programme underground, not physically underground, but under the radar," he told NBC News. "Where we tried to stop it, there is a possibility that this could accelerate it." Iran long has insisted that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. But in response to Israel's attacks, Iran's parliament is threatening to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international system that went into force in 1970 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, ending co-operation with the IAEA. "The world is going to be in the dark about what Iran may be doing," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group. 'Double tap' Reuters spoke to four experts who reviewed Maxar Technologies satellite imagery of Fordow showing six neatly spaced holes in two groups in the mountain ridge beneath which the hall containing the centrifuges is believed to be located. General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/B MOPs, 30,000-pound precision-guided bombs designed to drive up to 200 feet into hardened underground facilities like Fordow, according to a 2012 congressional report. Caine said initial assessments indicated that the sites suffered extremely severe damage, but declined to speculate about whether any nuclear facilities remained intact. Eveleth said the Maxar imagery of Fordow and Caine's comments indicated that the B-2s dropped an initial load of six MOPs on Fordow, followed by a "double tap" of six more in the exact same spots. Operation Midnight Hammer also targeted Tehran's main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, he said, and struck in Isfahan, the location of the country's largest nuclear research centre. There are other nuclear-related sites near the city. Israel had already struck Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Research Centre in its 10-day war with Iran. Albright said in a post on X that Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery showed that US Tomahawk cruise missiles severely damaged a uranium facility at Isfahan and an impact hole above the underground enrichment halls at Natanz reportedly caused by a Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bomb that "likely destroyed the facility." Albright questioned the US use of cruise missiles in Isfahan, saying that those weapons could not penetrate a tunnel complex near the main nuclear research centre believed to be even deeper than Fordow. The IAEA said the tunnel entrances "were impacted". He noted that Iran recently informed the IAEA that it planned to install a new uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan. "There may be 2,000 to 3,000 more centrifuges that were slated to go into this new enrichment plant," he said. "Where are they?" [[nid:719360]]
Straits Times
22 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Iran's short-range weapons pose a threat to US Bases
A number of US bases are within range of Iran's short-range weapons. PHOTO: REUTERS Follow our live coverage here. WASHINGTON – Iran vowed to retaliate against American bases in the region even before the United States attacked its nuclear sites on June 21 , and US intelligence agencies have long warned that the military should prepare for such a response. While Iran will likely attempt a fierce barrage, US and Israeli officials said before the attacks on June 21 that Israel's strikes in recent days had severely damaged Iran's ability to mount attacks, wiping out launchers and damaging military bases. In more than a week of fighting before the US attacks, the Israeli air force struck Iranian missile launchers and launch teams, and Iran depleted its stockpile of medium-range missiles, according to US and Israeli officials. In an address from the White House on June 21 , President Donald Trump warned Iran against further actions, and demanded that Tehran 'make peace.' 'There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days,' Mr Trump said. 'But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.' Iran could ignore Mr Trump's comments and deploy its remaining medium-range missiles, or its short-range weapons and cruise missiles, which could be used to threaten US bases in the Middle East, according to experts. Mr Nicholas Carl, who studies Iran for the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project, said those weapons have too short a range to be directly fired against Israel. But a number of US bases are within range. In addition to cruise missiles and rockets, Iran also has an ample supply of attack drones, which could be particularly effective if they are smuggled to Shiite militias in Iraq and fired at US bases there, US officials said. And the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen, which reached a ceasefire agreement with the United States in May , could resume its attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. 'Iran has many ways of imposing pressure on the West and the international community writ large,' Mr Carl said in an interview before the strike on the three nuclear sites. US officials said Iran would probably use its bases in the southern part of the country to launch missile attacks on US bases in the Persian Gulf. The fighting has strained Israel's supply of missile interceptors and Iran's capacity to attack. When the war began, Iran had some 2,000 long and midrange weapons, one of the largest collections in the region, according to Israeli officials. US officials have generally accepted that estimate. It is not clear how much of Iran's arsenal remains. The country has fired off hundreds of missiles, and Israel has damaged sites where they are stored. Israel's strikes on missile launchers have been even more significant, limiting Iran's ability to fire missiles and large-scale barrages, US officials and outside experts said. Israel's campaign has also hurt Iran's ability to coordinate attacks, according to experts and Israeli officials. US bases in the Middle East are protected by missile defences , and Iran would likely have to fire a large coordinated barrage of missiles to penetrate them. Mr Carl said Iran's capacity to fire large numbers of missiles is increasingly limited. At least half of Iran's launchers have been destroyed. 'As you begin to whittle away at the launchers, the Iranian ability to summon these large volumes of missile fire is diminished,' Mr Carl said. 'And that is a huge problem for Iran.' The Israeli attacks have forced Iran to change its tactics and operations. Mr Carl said that in response to Israel's strikes on missile crews preparing to launch weapons, Iran appeared to be trying to launch missiles more quickly. 'The Iranians appear to be accelerating their launch timeline,' Mr Carl said. 'That means it is harder to coordinate large-scale attacks across the country.' Key weaknesses in Iran's arsenal were revealed in attacks on Israel in 2024 . Israeli and US air defence proved adept at intercepting missiles. Iranian targeting is imperfect, and many missiles miss their targets. Quality control problems have led to significant numbers of malfunctions. To overcome those problems, Iran needs to be able to fire large numbers of missiles simultaneously. But as long as Israeli pressure on launch sites continues, experts say, Iran will struggle to fire large barrages, which could limit its ability to retaliate against US bases. US missile defences – ranging from Patriot batteries to Aegis destroyers – have the capacity to defend military bases in the region. Those defences will be more effective against small barrages of weapons. Iranian officials have said that US bases in Iraq would probably be their first targets, either with a direct missile strike or by rockets or drones fired by pro-Iran militias. Iran may not want to strike US bases in Arab countries, but that calculation would probably change after the US attacks on Iran's underground Fordo nuclear site, and other sites in Natanz and Isfahan, US officials said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
