Iran to present a counter-proposal to U.S. in nuclear talks, foreign ministry says
DUBAI, June 9 (Reuters) - Iran will soon hand a counter-proposal in nuclear talks to the United States via Oman, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, in response to a U.S. offer that Tehran deems "unacceptable".
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Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard warns world on brink of 'nuclear annihilation' in terrifying video
President Trump's intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard has released a dire warning about imminent 'nuclear annihilation' in a video showing San Francisco getting bombed. The director of national intelligence posted a several-minute video on her personal X account Tuesday morning with an ominous message about impending nuclear peril. The footage begins with Gabbard noting how she recently visited Hiroshima, site of the WWII nuclear blast. 'It's hard to find the words to express what I saw,' she says. 'This attack obliterated the city, killed over 300,000 people, many dying instantly, while others died from severe burns, injuries, radiation, sickness and cancer that set in the following months and years. Nagasaki suffered the same fate, homes, schools, families, all gone in a flash.' Her post reveals that she walked away from the experience with a 'haunting sadness' that 'will stay with me forever.' As she spoke, the video cut to footage of blast victims in 1945 and the flattened skylines of the bombed-out city remains. 'Yet this one bomb that caused so much destruction in Hiroshima was tiny compared to today's nuclear bombs,' she continued as renderings showed the colossal scale of modern day weapons. Gabbard then delivers a menacing verdict: 'We are closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before.' Scenes in the post depicted a simulation of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge shattering due to a nuclear explosion. Other seemingly AI-generated scenes showed the greenish dusk that could be caused from nuclear fallout as clouds choke out sunlight from reaching the ground. Though she did not highlight specific foreign adversaries the DNI did condemn unnamed 'political elite warmongers' who she accused of stirring fear. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately return the Daily Mail's request for comment about the purpose and intended audience of the video. A recent ODNI threat assessment published in March sheds light on which countries have the capabilities Gabbard warns of. 'China remains intent on modernizing, diversifying, and expanding its nuclear posture. China's nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems pose a direct threat to the Homeland and are capable of delivering catastrophic damage to the United States and threatening U.S. military forces here and abroad,' the annual threat assessment states. 'Russia has the largest and most diverse nuclear weapons stockpile that, along with its deployed ground, air and sea-based delivery systems, could inflict catastrophic damage to the Homeland,' it continues. The intelligence report also reveals that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un 'remains committed to increasing the number of North Korea's nuclear warheads and improving its missile capabilities to threaten the Homeland and U.S. forces, citizens, and allies.' Footage aired by Chinese state media appears to show powerful weapons in underground bases Iran was mentioned in the report, though the intelligence community's assessment is that they are not actively working to restart their nuclear weapons program. Trump has also been trying to secure a nuclear deal with Tehran, though negotiations are ongoing. Estimates suggest there are over 12,000 nuclear weapons across the globe currently, enough to kill billions of people worldwide. Tensions over nuclear weapon use against adversaries have increased since the war in Ukraine broke out. In November 2024, for example, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially lowered the country's threshold for nuclear launches. 'As we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear intentions between nuclear powers,' Gabbard says. 'Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to.'
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Netanyahu's government could collapse over Israel's ultra-Orthodox military draft law
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a vote to dissolve parliament Wednesday and key coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government. Still, few think it's the end of the road for Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has been battling corruption charges for years, or his far-right government, still in power after presiding over the security failures surrounding the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The move to dissolve, called by the opposition, will only pass if Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition partners break with him over the failure to pass a law exempting their community from military service, an issue that has bitterly divided Israelis, especially during the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The threats coming from the ultra-Orthodox could be posturing, and many expect Netanyahu to pull off a last-minute deal. But Wednesday's vote is the most serious challenge to Netanyahu's government since the war began, and the coalition's collapse could have major implications for Israel and the ongoing war. Why the ultra-Orthodox reject military service Most Jewish men are required to serve nearly three years of military service followed by years of reserve duty. Jewish women serve two mandatory years. But the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox, who make up roughly 13% of Israeli society, have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full-time in religious seminaries. The exemptions — and the government stipends many seminary students receive through age 26 — have infuriated the general public. After Hamas' 2023 attack, Israel activated 360,000 reservists, its largest mobilization since the 1973 Mideast war. Israel is engaged in the longest active war in the country's history, which has stretched its robust military to the breaking point. Many reserve soldiers have served multiple rounds of duty in Gaza totaling hundreds of days. Some reserve soldiers are rejecting new call-ups. The number of Israelis continuing to report for reserve duty has dropped so low that the military has taken to social media to try to recruit people to keep serving. The enlistment exemption for the ultra-Orthodox goes back to Israel's 1948 founding, when small numbers of gifted scholars were exempt from the draft in response to the decimation of Jewish scholarship during the Holocaust. But with a push from politically powerful religious parties, the numbers have swelled to tens of thousands today. Israel's Supreme Court said the exemptions were illegal in 2017, but repeated extensions and government delay tactics have prevented a replacement law from being passed. Among Israel's Jewish majority, mandatory military service is largely seen as a melting pot and rite of passage. That's exactly why some ultra-Orthodox don't want their children to serve. 'It mixes together people with very different backgrounds, very different ideas, some people with very immoral ideas,' said Rabbi Ephraim Luft, 66, from the ultra-Orthodox stronghold of Bnei Barak. Luft said the community's dedication to upholding Jewish commandments protects the country as much as military service. 'Over thousands of years, the Jewish people have stood very strongly against any kind of decrees to force them to give up their religion, they've given up their lives for this,' Luft said. 'People have to understand there's no difference between the Spanish Inquisition or the Israeli draft law.' Why ultra-Orthodox parties would want to bring down the government Two parties belonging to the Haredim, or 'God-fearing' in Hebrew, are essential to Netanyahu's coalition. Both would need to vote to dissolve the government to force new elections, including Shas, which has traditionally been more supportive of Netanyahu. On Monday, a Shas spokesperson told an ultra-Orthodox radio program the party plans to vote in favor of dissolution, unless there is a breakthrough in negotiations. The other party, Degel HaTorah, has been threatening to leave the government since last week. 'Basically, they don't really care about the war and the economic situation of the state and anything else but their communal interest. And the focus of this communal interest is getting the exemption from serving in the army," said Shuki Friedman, an expert on religion and state affairs and vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank. Friedman and other experts say the current system is unsustainable. With its high birthrate, the ultra-Orthodox are the fastest-growing segment of Israel's population, at about 4% annually. Each year, roughly 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men reach the conscription age of 18, but less than 10% enlist, according to parliament's State Control Committee, which held a hearing examining the issue. The shock of the Oct. 7 attack appeared to ignite some enthusiasm among the ultra-Orthodox to serve, but no large enlistment materialized. The army has repeatedly declined to comment on the ultra-Orthodox enlistment rate. What happens if parliament is dissolved If the dissolution vote passes, it still faces a series of bureaucratic steps, including additional votes, that the government would likely drag on for weeks or months, said Gayil Talshir, a political science professor at Hebrew University. 'It will be like a gun that's been put into position, but that doesn't mean the coalition is over,' she said. Elections in Israel are scheduled for the fall of 2026. Both Talshir and Friedman believe it's unlikely the dissolution vote will pass Wednesday. If one ultra-Orthodox party is absent, the vote will not pass and another cannot be brought for six months, Talshir said. However, there's also a 'valid possibility' the rabbis who advise the ultra-Orthodox parties will say they've waited long enough for a draft exemption law, because they are facing enormous pressure from their communities, Friedman said. On Tuesday, top Haredi rabbis issued a religious decree emphasizing their stand against military service, which complicates the Haredi politicians' ability to negotiate, Friedman added. The army has issued thousands of draft notices to the ultra-Orthodox community, and those who refuse to serve can face arrest. While only around a dozen have been arrested after being stopped for trying to leave the country or for traffic violations, the fear this has inspired is significant, he added. Impact on the war in Gaza and the hostage crisis Netanyahu frequently cites the ongoing war as a reason Israel needs to provide a united front against its enemies. While the ultra-Orthodox parties remain part of the coalition, they want the war to end as quickly as possible, Talshir said. 'The Haredim think once the war is over, the pressure will be off them and they will be able to get their (military) exemption law,' she said.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sizewell C is needed – but critical cost numbers are still missing
Sizewell C must be the most-announced nuclear power station in history. It feels as if every energy secretary in the last half-decade, facing up to the reality that most of the existing nuclear fleet will be going offline by the early 2030s, has endorsed the Suffolk plant and hailed it as marking the dawn of a new era for the industry. 'A golden age for clean energy abundance,' was Ed Miliband's version on Tuesday. The difference this time is that serious government money is being put on the table, making it possible to have confidence that Sizewell C will actually happen. A final investment decision won't come until later in the summer, but a £14bn government commitment at this stage, taking the tally to almost £18bn, is not small change. The state's balance sheet is being put to work; the game now is about rounding up private-sector investors to play a supporting financing role. But, for those who have followed Sizewell's progress over the years, there was a glaring omission in the announcement. What will consumers pay for Sizewell's electricity? Will it still be substantially cheaper in real terms than the juice set to be generated at Hinkley Point C in Somerset? The big boast about Sizewell's relative value didn't rest on the hopeful (but probably still reasonable) idea that lessons in construction will be learned from Hinkley's cost overruns and delays. Rather, it was about the exciting financing model – a 'regulated asset base', or RAB, approach. Under a RAB model, investors are able to share some of a project's construction and operating risks with consumers, so the result should be a lower cost of capital, the critical financial metric when you're building an asset with an intended life of 60-plus years. Back in the day, there was talk was of Sizewell's electricity being priced in the £70-£75 megawatt hour range using 2012 prices for easy comparison with Hinkley, where the developer, EdF, was given an initial guaranteed strike price of £92.50 when it starts producing. The numbers aren't exactly like for like because, under RAB, consumers also start paying during the construction phase. But you get the picture: there is supposed to be a headline figure for Sizewell's output that is impressively lower than Hinkley's. It wasn't displayed during Tuesday's razzmatazz. A benign explanation is that the government can't talk numbers while it is still negotiating with outside investors. By way of reassurance, Miliband did at least stick to the old idea that, as Sizewell will be a replica of Hinkley, it can be built 'a lot more cheaply' and will lead to 'lower bills'. But precision matters. If Sizewell's output is still being priced roughly as advertised when the project was conceived, one can raise a cheer. The country needs reliable baseload supplies and (unless you're with the Green party) nuclear is the obvious low-carbon option. And the case is only strengthened by the fact that the cost of subsidies for offshore wind will probably rise again in this year's renewables auction. But we still need to see the hard numbers on Sizewell.
