
LIVE: Israel-Iran truce holds; US ‘did not destroy' Iranian nuclear sites
The ceasefire between Israel and Iran, announced by US President Donald Trump, appears to be holding, despite an Iranian missile attack and an Israeli assault on Tehran after the truce came into effect.
White House refutes media reports that say US bombings of Iran's nuclear sites did not completely destroy the facilities and only set the programme back by a few months.

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Al Jazeera
8 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump insists Iran nuclear sites ‘completely destroyed' in US strikes
United States President Donald Trump has insisted that the strikes on several of Iran's nuclear sites last week 'completely destroyed' the facilities, rejecting US media reports citing a Pentagon assessment that the attacks only set Tehran's nuclear programme back by a few months. An initial intelligence evaluation suggested that the US bombardment failed to destroy Iran's underground nuclear facilities, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN reported on Tuesday, citing officials familiar with the military intelligence report from the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Two people familiar with the assessment had told CNN that Iran's 'enriched uranium was not destroyed' and the centrifuges were 'largely intact'. Another source told the US broadcaster that, according to the assessment, enriched uranium had been moved before the US strikes on Sunday. Trump has maintained that the US strikes destroyed nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. 'Fake news CNN, together with the failing New York Times, have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history,' Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. 'The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed!' he wrote. When reporters asked him about Iran rebuilding its nuclear programme on Tuesday, Trump said: 'That place is under rock. That place is demolished.' The White House said the intelligence assessment was 'flat-out wrong'. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN in a statement: 'Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.' Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, also dismissed the intelligence report. 'All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that programme,' Witkoff told Fox News on Monday night. 'In my view, and in many other experts' views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years.' Witkoff also called the leaking of the report 'treasonous'. 'It ought to be investigated. And whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it, should be held accountable,' he added. Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi said an information war is under way. 'There are clearly figures in Washington who are very keen to leak a very preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency bombing assessment,' he said. He noted that White House reporters received a press statement, saying the 'leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear programme'. 'This is the first moment we are seeing, post-bombing, of the information landscape and how this information will be used and what effect it might have on Donald Trump going forward,' Rattansi said.


Al Jazeera
44 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Zohran Mamdani claims victory in NYC Democratic mayoral primary
Zohran Mamdani claims victory in NYC Democratic mayoral primary NewsFeed Video shows Zohran Mamdani declaring victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary after Andrew Cuomo conceded. The 33-year-old democratic socialist would become the city's first Muslim and Indian American mayor if elected. Video Duration 01 minutes 26 seconds 01:26 Video Duration 00 minutes 50 seconds 00:50 Video Duration 02 minutes 18 seconds 02:18 Video Duration 01 minutes 59 seconds 01:59 Video Duration 00 minutes 40 seconds 00:40 Video Duration 00 minutes 54 seconds 00:54 Video Duration 02 minutes 37 seconds 02:37


Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Zohran Mamdani set to become Democratic candidate in New York mayoral race
Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker, has declared victory in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary after beating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a landslide win during the first round of voting. 'In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it's done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honoured to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City,' Mamdani tweeted early on Wednesday morning. Initial results show Mamdani secured 43.5 percent of votes to Cuomo's 36.4 percent, with major wins across the New York boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn, and much of Manhattan, while Cuomo took the Bronx and Staten Island. Mamdani was relatively unknown before the primary election but gained traction as a self-described 'democratic socialist' during a time of upheaval in national politics following the inauguration of United States President Donald Trump. His story echoes that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – another democratic socialist who rocketed to political fame in the US in 2018 with a surprise win in New York congressional elections, but the primary election is not over yet. In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it's done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City. — Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 25, 2025 New York's primary voting procedure lets voters rank their five top candidates, so voters' non-first-choice picks still need to be counted in the coming days. Experts say it is likely that Mamdani will surpass the 50 percent threshold due to strategic alliances with other candidates to support each other as a 'second place' candidate, according to The Associated Press news agency. New York City is also a Democratic stronghold, which means Mamdani has a high chance of becoming its first mayor of Asian heritage and first Muslim mayor if he can beat the incumbent, Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani was born in Uganda to parents of Indian heritage and moved to the US as a young child. His mother is the award-winning film director Mira Nair, and his Ugandan-born father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia University. Mamdani's public support for the Palestinian cause drew accusations of anti-Semitism from some New Yorkers during his campaign, but he gained the support of progressive and younger voters who are critical of US support for Israel's war on Gaza. I will always be clear in my language and based in facts: Israel is committing a genocide. — Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 31, 2024 'The responsibility to uphold international law' New York has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, but also a sizeable Muslim community, which means the Israel-Palestine conflict has particular resonance with voters, even during a municipal election. In the days leading up to the election, Mamdani addressed some of these issues directly in an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Following questions from Colbert, a well-known American comedian, Mamdani said he agreed with Israel's right to exist, but said it also had 'the responsibility to uphold international law'. He also acknowledged the uptick in anti-Semitic violence across the US and proposed to create a Department of Community Safety in New York and raise funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800 percent. Mamdani's campaign also focused on cost-of-living issues faced by New Yorkers, calling for rent freezes, free buses, and city-owned grocery stores. Cuomo, 67, was initially seen as the establishment candidate, but controversies surrounding his campaign gave Mamdani a further boost. Cuomo was forced to step down as governor of New York in 2021 over allegations of sexual misconduct, and his run for mayor was seen as an attempt to remake his image. The ex-governor, however, was unable to shake off his past scandals despite securing a $25m super PAC, or independent expenditure-only political action committee, and the support of some of New York's wealthiest, like billionaire and ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to The New York Times.