
Iran vows to press on with nuke enrichment despite Trump's threats and ‘serious damage' done by stealth bombings
The pariah state pledged to enrich uranium at weapons-grade levels, despite the
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Iran has vowed to push on with its nuclear enrichment programme
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It comes after Trump's nuclear plant blitz during the 12-day war
Credit: The Mega Agency
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The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni's pariah state vowed to keep aiming for a nuclear weapon
Credit: EPA
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B-2 Spirit drops a GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bomb (stock)
Credit: US Airforce
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News that his country would not give up on its nuclear programme.
He added that the US and Israel's bid to prevent
The chilling threats came despite threats of intense international sanctions against the
Araghchi said: "We
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"And now, more than that, it is a question of national
pride
."
The Foreign Minister also said: "Enrichment is so dear to us."
Aragchi confirmed that the damage done by Donald Trump's Operation Midnight Hammer on Iran's nuclear sites had been "serious".
But he stopped short of commenting on whether any enriched uranium survived the
Most read in The US Sun
"Our facilities have been damaged – seriously damaged," Araghchi said.
"The extent of which is now under evaluation by our atomic
energy
organisation."
Iran's aging & paranoid Ayatollah is hanging by a thread - I know how it will all come crashing down, says ex-ambassador
He did confirm, however, that all enrichment capabilities in
Iran
had been ceased as a result of the facilities being "seriously damaged".
Last week,
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told Mehr News Agency: "We will never give up our legitimate right to enrich uranium.
"Enrichment is a sovereign right that we will continue to pursue based on our national needs.
"Bombing cannot erase this knowledge — it will only come back stronger."
The
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News Iran would keep pushing forward with the programme
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The moment the US missile hit Iran's facility in the test footage
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A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex after the US bombings on June 21
The Israelis also orchestrated Operation Red Wedding - which saw 30 top Iranian military chiefs killed in a near-simultaneous blitz as Tel Aviv sought to root out the
Even
Masoud Pezeshkian was wounded in the leg and forced to flee a
Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across
Israel
, but failed to hit any strategic targets.
Less than a fortnight later, Trump joined the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran with
The
US military
's flagship
The
The Don celebrated his sophisticated blitz on the Iranian regime - and said that the US bombs went through enemy nuclear sites "
Iran, which vowed to hit
US military
bases across the Middle East, sought its revenge by
But Tehran seemingly
Trump dubbed the expected response "weak" before announcing that a ceasefire deal had been reached between the Israelis and Iranians.
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Israeli Iron Dome air defence system intercepts missiles over Tel Aviv
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President Donald Trump and his national security team meeting in the Situation Room in June
Credit: White House
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RTÉ News
4 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Epstein files fight leads US House to start break early
The top Republican in the US House of Representatives said he would send politicians home a day early for a five-week summer recess to avoid a political fight over files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The move averts a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution to require the Justice Department and FBI to release all government documents on Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019. "What we refuse to do is participate in another one of the Democrats' political games. This is a serious matter. We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram," House Speaker Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, told reporters. Many of President Donald Trump's supporters who embraced a slew of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein saw their hopes raised when the administration vowed to release a slew of new documents on the case, only to backtrack and say it had concluded that there was no evidence to support the theories. That opened a rare breach between Mr Trump and parts of his Make America Great Again base of support. Majorities of Americans and Republicans say they believed the government is hiding details on the case, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. On Monday, Democrats sought to use a House Rules Committee meeting to force a vote on the Epstein resolution introduced by Republican Representative Thomas Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna. The panel serves as gatekeeper for floor-bound legislation. Republicans instead suspended the hearing, preventing the panel from approving bills for floor consideration this week. The House had been expected to hold the week's final votes tomorrow. But House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the chamber's number two Republican, told reporters there would be votes on yesterday and today for less important legislation considered under suspension of the rules. A subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein's longtime girlfriend, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. Under mounting pressure from Trump supporters for the release of material, Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's alleged sexual abuse of underage girls. Trump accuses Obama of treason The early recess of Congress comes as Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of "treason", accusing him, without providing evidence, of leading an effort to falsely tie him to Russia and undermine his 2016 presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Mr Obama denounced Mr Trump's claims, saying "these bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction." While Mr Trump has frequently attacked Mr Obama by name, the Republican president has not, since returning to office in January, gone this far in pointing the finger at his Democratic predecessor with allegations of criminal action. During remarks in the Oval Office, Mr Trump leaped on comments from his intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, on Friday in which she threatened to refer Obama administration officials to the Justice Department for prosecution over an intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. She declassified documents and said the information she was releasing showed a "treasonous conspiracy" in 2016 by top Obama administration officials to undermine Mr Trump, claims that Democrats called false and politically motivated. "It's there, he's guilty. This was treason," Mr Trump said, though he offered no proof of his claims. "They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever imagined, even in other countries." An assessment by the US intelligence community published in January 2017 concluded that Russia, using social media disinformation, hacking and Russian bot farms, sought to damage Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign and bolster Mr Trump. The assessment determined that the actual impact was likely limited and showed no evidence that Russia's efforts actually changed voting outcomes. A 2020 bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee had found that Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 election to help Mr Trump's campaign. "Nothing in the document issued last week (by Gabbard) undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes," Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement.

The Journal
21 minutes ago
- The Journal
Japanese car stocks soar as Trump announces countries have come to 'massive' trade deal
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has announced a 'massive' trade deal with Japan, marking a key breakthrough for major US trade partners as they scramble to strike agreements before the end of the month. In an attempt to slash his country's colossal trade deficit, Trump has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive 'reciprocal' tariffs if they do not hammer out a pact with Washington by 1 August. The breakthrough makes Japan one of five countries to have signed an agreement – along with Britain, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines – after Trump promised in April he would get '90 deals in 90 days'. 'We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,' he wrote on his Truth Social platform. He said that under the deal, 'Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits'. He did not provide further details on the unusual investment plan, but said it 'will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs'. Later, he wrote: 'I just signed the largest TRADE DEAL in history with Japan. We worked on it long and hard — It's a great deal for everybody…' Japanese exports to the United States were already subject to a 10% tariff, which would have risen to 25% on August 1 without a deal. Duties of 25% on Japanese autos – an industry accounting for 8% of Japanese jobs – were also already in place, plus 50% on steel and aluminium. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that the autos levy had now been cut to 15%, sending Japanese car stocks soaring, with Toyota and Mitsubishi up around 14% each. An extra edition of Japanese daily newspaper is published reporting that the United States of America and Japan had agreed on a 15% tariff in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo 'We are the first (country) in the world to reduce tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, with no limits on volume,' he told reporters. 'By protecting what needs to be protected, we continued the negotiations with an aim to reach an agreement that meets the national interest of both Japan and the United States,' Ishiba added. 'In this agreement with President Trump, I think we were able to realise such an agreement.' Rice imports However, Japan's trade envoy Ryosei Akazawa, who secured the deal on his eighth visit to Washington, said the 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium would remain. Advertisement Akazawa also said that increased defence spending by Japan – something Trump has pressed for – was not part of the agreement. Trump said today that Japan has also agreed to 'open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things'. Rice imports are a sensitive issue in Japan, and Ishiba's government– which lost its upper house majority in elections on Sunday – had previously ruled out any concessions. Japan currently imports 770,000 tonnes of rice tariff-free under its World Trade Organization commitments, and Ishiba said it would import more US grain within this. Ishiba said today that the deal does not 'sacrifice' Japan's agricultural sector. Tatsuo Yasunaga, the chair of Japan Foreign Trade Council welcomed the trade deal announcement but said the business community needed to see details to assess its impact. 'I highly commend the fact that this major milestone has been achieved and dispelled the uncertainty that private companies had been concerned about,' Yasunaga said. Naomi Omura, an 80-year-old voter, said it was 'disappointing that Japan cannot act more strongly' towards the United States. Tetsuo Momiyama, 81, said that Ishiba 'is finished… It's good timing for him to go.' Reports claimed today that he aims to step down soon following the election debacle. China talks Trump has been under pressure to wrap up trade pacts after promising a flurry of deals ahead of his deadline. The White House today also laid out details of a deal with Indonesia, which would see it ease critical mineral export restrictions and also face a 19% tariff, down from a threatened 32%. Trump also said that levies on the Philippines, another close strategic US ally, would be cut by one percentage point to 19% after hosting President Ferdinand Marcos. But negotiations are still ongoing with much larger US trading partners China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week. Leaders of the world's two biggest economies imposed escalating, tit-for-tat levies on each other's exports earlier this year, reaching triple-digit levels. But in talks in Geneva in May they agreed to lower them temporarily until 12 August.


Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Congress to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell amid political firestorm over Jeffrey Epstein files
Congress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker who was a close associate of the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration's decision not to release its remaining Epstein files. Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett introduced a motion to compel Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison for crimes related to the Epstein case, to testify before the House oversight committee. The move appears to skirt an announcement early on Tuesday that officials from the Department of Justice are also planning to meet with Maxwell. 'We got to send a message to these dirt bags,' Burchett said in a statement posted on X, referring to the list of clients and other Epstein enablers who are assumed to be included in the remaining Epstein files, the details of which are not publicly known. We've just got to get to the bottom of this thing, folks. It's four years and we don't need to tolerate this stuff any more. Soon after Burchett's announcement, Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, said he was shutting down operations in the chamber early, sending lawmakers home before a five-week summer recess. They were scheduled to leave Washington for their districts on 24 July and be out through the month of August, but will now leave a day earlier. The decision comes as Democrats and a handful of Republicans continue to press for files related to Epstein, sending regular legislative schedules into chaos. 'We're not going to play political games with this,' Johnson said at a news conference. Separately, a New York judge has ordered that the Trump administration must send more documents to support its call to release secret grand jury testimony from the 2021 Maxwell prosecution. T he Epstein issue has plagued the Trump administration. Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon Judge Paul Engelmayer said New York federal court would like to 'expeditiously' resolve the Trump administration's request, but that it could not do so due to a number of missing submissions, including 'why disclosure is being sought in the particular case' and 'what specific information is being sought for disclosure', he wrote. Engelmayer said the government must file a memorandum of law no later than 29 July and ordered Maxwell and the victims to file their positions on the proposed disclosure by 5 August. The Epstein issue has plagued the Trump administration as the president's own supporters buck him and clamor for more information, and as details continue to emerge about Trump's personal connections with Epstein, who was a friend of his for many years until they fell out. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had sent Epstein a lewd drawing along with a suggestive dialogue between the two men. The Trump administration responded by suing the newspaper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch. Epstein issues splits Capitol Hill The issue has also riven Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the Republican-led House of Representatives, led by Trump ally Johnson – who recently undermined the president by calling for the release of all files, only to back down several days later – voted to start its summer holiday early in order to avoid Epstein-related votes planned for Thursday. Burchett said he had introduced the motion directing James Comer, chair of the committee, to authorize and issue a subpoena for Maxwell. Comer was 'down with it', Burchett said. 'I believe he's going to issue the subpoena. He's a stand-up guy.' He also acknowledged that he would receive 'blowback, and folks up here are going to be mad at me, but ultimately and with all sincerity, I'm gonna answer my creator on this issue'. Burchett told Axios that he did not consult Trump before calling on the committee to subpoena Maxwell. He has previously written to Comer urging him to bring Maxwell in to testify. 'She's the last one standing,' he told the publication. 'There's nobody else alive that can tell us anything.' He also said he believes Maxwell could 'tell us the operation, how it went down, who were the supporters of it … Ultimately I'd like to see justice.' Justice department sending US deputy attorney general to meet Maxwell The announcement came hours after the justice department said it was planning to send Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, to Florida to meet with Maxwell. Lawyers for Maxwell said on Tuesday evening in a court filing that they had spoken to Blanche, Reuters reported. Last week, Trump directed the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to ask a court to release all relevant grand jury testimony in Epstein's case. Maxwell attorney David Oscar Markus confirmed on X 'that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully'. On Tuesday morning, Blanche also released a statement, posted by Bondi, saying that he plans to meet with Maxwell 'in the coming days'. Blanche's statement also defended the department's early July release, saying it was 'as accurate today as it was when it was written'. - The Guardian Read More Trump sues Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over reporting on Epstein ties