NBC: US Strikes Destroyed Only One of Three Iranian Nuclear Sites
President Donald Trump rejected a military plan for further comprehensive strikes on Iran's nuclear program, which would have lasted several weeks, the report added.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
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Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
‘No life without water': settler attacks threaten West Bank communities
KAFR MALIK, Palestinian Territories: From his monitoring station on a remote hill in the occupied West Bank, water operator Subhil Olayan keeps watch over a lifeline for Palestinians, the Ein Samiyah when Israeli settlers recently attacked the system of wells, pumps and pipelines he oversees, he knew the stakes.'There is no life without water, of course,' he said, following the attack which temporarily cut off the water supply to nearby spring, which feeds the pumping station, is the main or backup water source for some 110,000 people, according to the Palestinian company that manages it – making it one of the most vital in the West Bank, where water is in chronic short attack is one of several recent incidents in which settlers have been accused of damaging, diverting or seizing control of Palestinian water sources.'The settlers came and the first thing they did was break the pipeline. And when the pipeline is broken, we automatically have to stop pumping' water to nearby villages, some of which exclusively rely on the Ein Samiyah spring.'The water just goes into the dirt, into the ground,' Olayan said, adding that workers immediately fixed the damage to resume water two days after the latest attack, Israeli settlers – some of them armed – splashed in pools just below the spring, while Olayan monitored water pressure and cameras from a software showed normal pressure in the pipes pulling water from the wells and the large pipe carrying water up the hill to his village of Kafr he said maintenance teams dared not venture down to the pumping station out of fear for their the start of the war in Gaza, deadly settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have become week, settlers beat a 20-year-old dual US citizen to death in the nearby village of Sinjil, prompting US ambassador Mike Huckabee to urge Israel to 'aggressively investigate' the Qassis, chairman on the board of the Jerusalem Water Undertaking, which manages the Ein Samiyah spring, said he viewed the attacks as a tool for Israeli land grabs and annexation.'When you restrict water supply in certain areas, people simply move where water is available,' he said at a press conference.'So in a plan to move people to other lands, water is the best and fastest way,' he the start of the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians and officials have become increasingly vocal in support of annexing the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since prominent among them is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, who said in November that 2025 would be the year Israel applies its sovereignty over the Palestinian accused Israel's government of supporting settler attacks such as the one on Ein Israeli army said that soldiers were not aware of the incident in which pipes were damaged, 'and therefore were unable to prevent it.'The damage to Ein Samiyah's water facilities was not an isolated recent months, settlers in the nearby Jordan Valley took control of the Al-Auja spring by diverting its water from upstream, said Farhan Ghawanmeh, a representative of the Ras Ein Al Auja said two other springs in the area had also recently been taken Dura Al-Qaraa, another West Bank village that uses the Ein Samiyah spring as a back-up water source, residents are also concerned about increasingly long droughts and the way Israel regulates their water rights.'For years now, no one has been planting because the water levels have decreased,' said Rafeaa Qasim, a member of the village council, citing lower rainfall causing the land to be 'basically abandoned.'Qasim said that though water shortages in the village have existed for 30 years, residents' hands are tied in the face of this challenge.'We have no options; digging a well is not allowed,' despite the presence of local water springs, he said, pointing to a well project that the UN and World Bank rejected due to Israeli law prohibiting drilling in the lands chosen for drilling sit in the West Bank's Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli NGO B'Tselem reported in 2023 that the legal system led to sharp disparities in water access within the West Bank between Palestinians and nearly all residents of Israel and Israeli settlements have running water every day, only 36 percent of West Bank Palestinians do, the report Dura Al-Qaraa, Qasim fears for the future.'Each year, the water decreases and the crisis grows – it's not getting better, it's getting worse.'
Al Arabiya
4 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Rubio demands Syria prevents further attacks, hold accountable those behind Sweida clashes
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the US has 'heavily involved' over the past couple of days as clashes escalated in southern Syria. 'The US has remained heavily involved over the last three days with Israel, Jordan and authorities in Damascus on the horrifying & dangerous developments in southern Syria,' Rubio said on X. Sectarian clashes between armed Bedouin forces and the Druze in the community's Sweida heartland had drawn in Syria's government, Israel and other armed tribes. US-brokered negotiations have sought to avert further Israeli military intervention, with Syrian forces agreeing to withdraw from the region. Rubio added that 'If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria... they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent ISIS,' and other extremist groups from entering the area 'and carrying out massacres.' He called for the Syrian government to 'hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.' 'Furthermore the fighting between Druze and Bedouin groups inside the perimeter must also stop immediately,' Rubio added. Once in control of large swathes of Syria, ISIS was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 largely due to the efforts of Kurdish-led forces supported by an international coalition. Violence between the Druze and Bedouin groups that began on July 13 has left an estimated 940 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. With AFP
Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
With gavel in hand, Trump chisels away at the power of a compliant Congress
WASHINGTON: 'Mr. President, this is the gavel used to enact the 'big, beautiful bill,'' House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a White House signing ceremony on the Fourth of July. 'I want you to have it,' he said. Handing over the gavel delighted President Donald Trump who, seated behind a desk outdoors, immediately tested it out with a few quick thumps. The moment left a memorable mark on a historic day. The gesture reflected a traditional nod of honor, from one leader to another, a milestone of the Republican Party's priority legislation becoming law. But the imagery also underscored a symbolic transfer of political power, from Capitol Hill to the White House as a compliant Congress is ceding more and more of its prerogative to the presidency. Congress gives Trump what he wants Since Trump's return to the White House in January, and particularly in the past few weeks, Republicans in control of the House and Senate have shown an unusual willingness to give the president of their party what he wants, regardless of the potential risk to themselves, their constituents and Congress itself. Republicans raced to put the big package of tax breaks and spending cuts on Trump's desk by his Independence Day deadline. Senators had quickly confirmed almost all of Trump's outsider Cabinet nominees despite grave reservations over Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, Pete Hegseth as the Pentagon chief and others. House Republicans pursued Trump's interest in investigating his perceived foes, including investigating Democratic President Joe Biden'suse of the autopen. But at the same time, Congress hit the brakes on one of its own priorities, legislation imposing steep sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, after Trump announced he was allowing President Vladimir Putin an additional 50 days to negotiate a peace deal, dashing hopes for a swifter end to the conflict. This past week, Congress was tested anew, delivering on Trump's request to rescind some $9 billion that lawmakers had approved but that the administration wanted to eliminate, including money for public broadcasting and overseas aid. It was a rare presidential request, a challenge to the legislative branch's power of the purse, that has not been used in decades. The pressure on Republicans is taking its toll 'We're lawmakers. We should be legislating,' said a defiant Sen. Lisa Murkowksi, R-Alaska, as she refused to support the White House's demand to rescind money for National Public Radio and others. 'What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, 'This is the priority. We want you to execute on it. We'll be back with you with another round,'' she said. 'I don't accept that.' Congress, the branch of government the Founding Fathers placed first in the Constitution, is at a familiar crossroads. During the first Trump administration, Republicans frightened by Trump's angry tweets of disapproval would keep their criticisms private. Those who did speak up — Liz Cheney of Wyoming in the House and Mitt Romney of Utah in the Senate, among others — are gone from Capitol Hill. One former GOP senator, Jeff Flake of Arizona, who announced in 2017 during Trump's first term that he would not seek reelection the next year, is imploring Republicans to find a better way. 'The fever still hasn't broken,' he wrote recently in The New York Times. 'In today's Republican Party, voting your conscience is essentially disqualifying.' Seeking a 'normal' Congress But this time, the halls of Congress are filled with many Republicans who came of political age with Trump's 'Make America Great Again' movement and owe their ascent to the president himself. Many are emulating his brand and style as they shape their own. A new generation of GOP leaders, Johnson in the House and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, have pulled closer to Trump. They are utilizing the power of the presidency in ways large and small — to broker deals, encourage wayward lawmakers to fall in line, even to set schedules. Johnson, R-Louisiana, has openly pined for what he calls a 'normal Congress.' But short of that, the speaker relies on Trump to help stay on track. When Republicans hit an impasse on cryptocurrency legislation, a Trump priority, it was the president who met with holdouts in the Oval Office late Tuesday night as Johnson called in by phone. The result is a perceptible imbalance of power as the executive exerts greater authority while the legislative branch dims. The judicial branch has been left to do the heavy lift of checks and balances with the courts processing hundreds of lawsuits over the administration's actions. 'The genius of our Constitution is the separation of power,' said Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker, in an interview on SiriusXM's 'Mornings with Zerlina.' 'That the Republicans in Congress would be so ignoring of the institution that they represent, and that have just melted the power of the incredibly shrinking speakership' and Senate leadership positions, 'to do all of these things, to cater to the executive branch,' she said. Confronting Trump comes with costs Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., endured Trump's criticism over his opposition to the tax and spending cuts bill. The senator raised concerns about steep cuts to hospitals, but the president threatened to campaign against him. Tillis announced he would not seek reelection in 2026. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against that bill and the rescissions package despite Trump's threat to campaign against any dissenters. One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, appears to be pressing on, unphased. He recently proposed legislation to force the administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, something the president had been reluctant to do. 'Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that if the president wants something, you must do it,' said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in a Senate speech. 'We don't have to do this. We don't have to operate under the assumption that this man is uniquely so powerful.'
