The PG&E Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant located near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo county in California. It is the last commercial nuclear power plant in California.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA”:
There are 6 categories, with the latest addition including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that also play an important role in human and other life.
The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available on this weekend’s Saturday Post.)
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The Israelis too have threatened to strike again should they perceive a threat. But that calculus thrusts all sides into a perpetual game of cat-and- …
The PG&E Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant located near Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo county in California. It is the last commercial nuclear power plant in California.
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
My Personal Reasons and Thoughts about our Nuclear Future as it relates to this Blog:
Over the last 3 years I have watched, created, and learned in multiple ways to understand what I have, seemingly without conscious consideration ,attempted to make of my latter days of life — a part of which is this daily blog about the pitifully dangerous world we have become forced to exist in — and that it is mandatory to do what I, as well as you, the reader, can do to enlighten our own individual lives by seeking to help our collective lives on planet Earth move forward rather than statically sideways or even bassackwards as it has for the what I call the nuclear years,
It all began for me with the “Manhattan Project”, which changed the world in so many ways, including war, beginning about the same time I was born. One could thus say that I have lived with the “nuclear age” all of my life and as a young adult I somehow oddly became a part of the “nuclear industry” itself as a professional employee for a corporation that was one of the first allowed to provide uranium fuel to the early nuclear reactor power plants on a commercial basis, spending much of 3 decades learning and working in and about the industry. I left the nuclear world shortly after the “3-Mile Island” nuclear accident, suddenly realizing the world-wide danger of “all things nuclear”, including a grown-up realistic vision of the prior nuclear bombing of Japan forcing an immediate stop to WWII, but coming at the malicious expense of ordinary public citizens of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people who had little or nothing to do with the war, but were brutally sacrificed to end a war that had been confined to military theatre operational battles, as in all wars before the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States on August 6th and August 9th of 1945, when I was not yet 4 years old. The word “nuclear” has gradually taken a nasty tone in my mind, and I have long wished it to be removed forever from human use and “disappeared” from our knowledge that it ever existed. But, of course, that wish will never come true.
So that is why I have tried my best to simply report the reasons they — the bassackwards ones who are our world leaders and their masses of followers — should take the time to, on their own and freely, consciously, carefully, look into the endless information that I (and others, too) have provided, without fanfare or seeking “sponsors”, to warn the world on a daily basis for, in my case, more than 3 years that we humans are on the verge of extinguishing most all life on planet Earth — hoping all the while that curious concerned average folks around the world would come to the realization and band together to decry the facts that nuclear weapons and, yes, nuclear energy devastation are rapidly approaching in a way more than simply what we continue to call “threats” for now.
The ridiculous re-birth of the nuclear power industry may well become a major threat to the future of humanity and other life for many highly possible reasons if the industry and its commercial power suppliers and the future AI/Computer generated uses and users continue to successfully move nuclear energy forward around the globe, Nuclear power generation will become, and already are, what I refer to as “stationary nuclear bombs”. Such an effort by questionable human intelligence can easily create its own style of Pandora’s Box of dangers, including nuclear accidents, nuclear or uranium theft, black markets, and possible subversion, including terrorism, sabotage and insurrection. The larger the market grows the greater the risk of insurrection . . .
We fail to understand that most of humanity does not realize where we are blindly leading ourselves, like lemmings, to a place where our own self destruction exists because humanity is not intellectually qualified to avoid the outcome of the use of all things or anything nuclear, and that once used, for the madness and eventual failures of both the spoils of war and the peaceful generation of electricity, the consequences of nuclear waste, terrorism, and accidents will never go away.
So it is that I will continue to post the compilation of “TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS DIGEST”, which every day, seven days a week, features as many as 15 of the best nuclear-based media stories in 5 categories and up to 3 “bonus” stories about the “Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes”, but I will no longer add my personal opinions nor selected images (other than leaving those already inserted in a current media article).
This personal decision has arrived because I am well into an important nuclear based novel, draft titled “El Nuclear Diablo”, that will eventually serve the same intended purposes as the blog, but in a more interesting, exciting, readable, and literate level — and hopefully also in a more appreciable and adventurous way than my daily whines that I have long posted on the blog . . . ~llaw
And as one devoted everyday bibliophile — as I had come to think of it — I do hope you will continue to visit this very important daily Post, and I am considering, but have not come to any conclusion, offering a Q&A section to replace the “In my Opinion” area. Today’s July 4th Post will be the last in the present format, and I have appropriately explained some of my personal reasons for discontinuing the blog as we — meaning all the occasional readers
In My Opinion: (for the last time in this format . . .}
This very welcome Post and fittingly timed (Published today) as my last chosen piece for commentary is close to my heart is a very well told story of extremely dangerous political neglect from “Pediatric Research”. It is a timely and excellent piece that all of us need to read and think seriously about where the future of humanity is involved.
I need only to add the following (the 2nd to last paragraph) from the short but to-the-point article to say, as a final personal concern that should also be yours, how precisely my biggest fear about the future failure of mankind to prevent the passing of most human and other life on planet Earth! ~llaw
The 2nd to last paragraph:
It is an alarming failure of leadership that no progress has been made on these needed measures, nor on many other feasible steps away from the brink, acting on the obligation of all states to achieve nuclear disarmament. Nine states jeopardise all humanity and the biosphere by claiming an exclusive right to wield the most destructive and inhumane weapons ever created. The world desperately needs the leaders of these states to freeze their arsenals, end the modernisation and development of new, more dangerous nuclear weapons, and ensure that new technology such as artificial intelligence can never trigger the launch of nuclear weapons.
This May, the World Health Assembly (WHA) will vote on re-establishing a mandate for the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the health consequences of nuclear weapons and war.1 Health professionals and their associations should urge their governments to support such a mandate and support the new UN comprehensive study on the effects of nuclear war.
The first atomic bomb exploded in the New Mexico desert 80 years ago, in July 1945. Three weeks later, two relatively small (by today’s standards), tactical-size nuclear weapons unleashed a cataclysm of radioactive incineration on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the end of 1945, about 213,000 people were dead.2 Tens of thousands more have died from late effects of the bombings.
Last December, Nihon Hidankyo, a movement that brings together atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its “efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.3 For the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the award validated the most fundamental human right: the right to live. The Committee warned that the menace of nuclear weapons is now more urgent than ever before. In the words of Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes, “it is naive to believe our civilisation can survive a world order in which global security depends on nuclear weapons. The world is not meant to be a prison in which we await collective annihilation.”4 He noted that our survival depended on keeping intact the “nuclear taboo” (which stigmatises the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable).5
The nuclear taboo gains strength from recognition of compelling evidence of the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, its severe global climatic and famine consequences, and the impossibility of any effective humanitarian response. This evidence contributed significantly to ending the Cold War nuclear arms race.6,7
While the numbers of nuclear weapons are down to 12,331 now, from their 1986 peak of 70,300,8 this is still equivalent to 146,605 Hiroshima bombs,9 and does not mean humanity is any safer.10 Even a fraction of the current arsenal could decimate the biosphere in a severe mass extinction event. The global climate disruption caused by the smoke pouring from cities ignited by just 2% of the current arsenal could result in over two billion people starving.11
A worldwide nuclear arms race is underway. Deployed nuclear weapons are increasing again, and China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and UK are all enlarging their arsenals. An estimated 2100 nuclear warheads in France, Russia, UK, US and, for the first time, also in China, are on high alert, ready for launch within minutes.8 With disarmament in reverse, extensive nuclear modernisations underway, multiple arms control treaties abrogated without replacement, no disarmament negotiations in evidence, nuclear-armed Russia and Israel engaged in active wars involving repeated nuclear threats, Russia and the US deploying nuclear weapons to additional states, and widespread use of cyberwarfare, the risk of nuclear war is widely assessed to be greater than ever. This year the Doomsday Clock was moved the closest to midnight since the Clock’s founding in 1947.10
Led by Ireland and New Zealand, in late 2024, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted overwhelmingly to establish a 21-member independent scientific panel to undertake a new comprehensive study on the effects of nuclear war,12 with its final report due in 2027. Noting that “removing the threat of a nuclear war is the most acute and urgent task of the present day”, the panel has been tasked with examining the physical effects and societal consequences of a nuclear war on a local, regional and planetary scale. It will examine the climatic, environmental and radiological effects of nuclear war, and their impact on public health, global socioeconomic systems, agriculture and ecosystems.
The resolution calls upon UN agencies, including WHO, to support the panel’s work, including by “contributing expertise, commissioned studies, data and papers”. All UN Member States are encouraged to provide relevant information, scientific data and analyses; facilitate and host panel meetings, including regional meetings; and make budgetary or in-kind contributions. Such an authoritative international assessment of evidence on the most acute existential threat to humankind and planetary health is long overdue. The last such report dates from 1989. It is shameful that France, UK and Russia opposed this resolution.13
In 1983 and 1987,14 WHO convened an international committee of scientists and health experts to study the health effects of nuclear war. Its landmark, authoritative reports were influential and an excellent example of WHO fulfilling its constitutional mandate “to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work”. In 1993, WHO produced an additional shorter report on the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons, which included discussion of the production chain of nuclear weapons, including processing, testing and disposal.15
However, despite WHA having mandated WHO to report periodically on relevant developments, no further work was undertaken and in 2020 WHO’s mandate on nuclear weapons and health lapsed.
The Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu, supported by seven co-sponsoring states and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), are working to renew WHO’s mandate. They are seeking wide support for a resolution on the health effects of nuclear weapons/war at this year’s WHA in Geneva on 19-27 May.1 WHO would then re-establish a programme of work on this most critical threat to health, and be able to lead strongly in providing the best health evidence to the UN panel.
Health professionals are well aware how crucial accurate and up-to-date evidence is to making good decisions. We and our organisations should support such a renewed mandate by urging our national WHA delegates to vote in support and commit the modest funds needed to re-establish WHO’s work programme, especially now, as the organisation faces severe financial strain with the US decision to withdraw its membership.
Our joint editorial in 202316 on reducing the risks of nuclear war and the role of health professionals, published in over 150 health journals worldwide, urged three immediate steps by nuclear-armed states and their allies: adopt a “no first use” policy, take their nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, and pledge unequivocally that they will not use nuclear weapons in any current conflicts they are involved in. We also urged nuclear-armed states to work for a definitive end to the nuclear threat by urgently starting negotiations for a verifiable, timebound agreement to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, and called on all nations to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.17
It is an alarming failure of leadership that no progress has been made on these needed measures, nor on many other feasible steps away from the brink, acting on the obligation of all states to achieve nuclear disarmament. Nine states jeopardise all humanity and the biosphere by claiming an exclusive right to wield the most destructive and inhumane weapons ever created. The world desperately needs the leaders of these states to freeze their arsenals, end the modernisation and development of new, more dangerous nuclear weapons, and ensure that new technology such as artificial intelligence can never trigger the launch of nuclear weapons.
The UN scientific panel and a renewed mandate for WHO’s work in this area can provide vital authoritative and up-to-date evidence for health and public education, evidence-based advocacy and policies, and the mobilised public concern needed to trigger decisive political leadership. This is a core health imperative for all of us.
Tomonaga, M. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: a summary of the human consequences, 1945-2018, and lessons for Homo sapiens to end the nuclear weapon age. J. Peace Nucl. Disarmament2, 491–517 (2019).
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There are two Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only) (Note: If the IAEA Weekly News does not return by the following Friday from today, this category will be removed)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
New Cold War?: US faces long-term battle to contain Iran after Trump’s strike on their nuclear facilities. The CIA is now acknowledging severe, long- …
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
So the Pentagon has softened their initial “few months” downtime to Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities to a “one or two years” delay, allowing Trump to save enough face to allow at least one of his lies to be no more than a downtime prediction mistake.
But the Pentagon does not go so low as to say that Trump’s “obliteration” claim is a fact nor anywhere near-so. And the extended lies (see yesterday’s Post) piled on top of one-another cannot be softened no matter the “erroneous” time estimate. We must remember that a year or two is not a long time. For instance, I have been writing this blog for nearly three years, which is hard for even me to believe! llolloll!
I also want to add here that this “In My Opinion” section as well as the daily lead-in media article will no longer be a part of this blog, and the blog will become only known as and titled as LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY, leaving out the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW.
But rest assured the media stories will remain in their collected categories here, allowing users to read or not read any or all the 15 or so individual stories in whatever category of nuclear sections you may prefer to follow.
I will explain the changes and the abridgement in more detail in tomorrow’s 4th of July Post, which will be the last one in the present format. ~llaw
US says its strikes degraded Iran’s nuclear programme by one to two years
Pentagon says its intelligence assessments show that Iran’s nuclear sites were destroyed in ‘bold’ US attacks.
The aftermath of an Israeli strike on Evin Prison in Tehran [File: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters]
Washington, DC – The Pentagon has announced that United States military strikes against Iran set back the country’s nuclear programme by one to two years, an assessment that follows President Donald Trump’s claims that the programme was “obliterated”.
Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Wednesday that the three Iranian nuclear facilities targeted by Washington were destroyed, echoing the president’s remarks. He praised the strikes as a “bold operation”.
“We have degraded their programme by one to two years at least,” Parnell told reporters. “Intel assessments inside the department assess that.”
Since the US sent a group of B-2 stealth bombers to Iran on June 21, Trump has consistently lashed out at any suggestions that the attacks did not wreck the country’s nuclear facilities.
He has maintained that Iran’s nuclear programme has been “obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before”.
An initial US intelligence assessment, leaked to several media outlets last month, said the strikes failed to destroy key components of Iran’s nuclear programme and only delayed its work by months.
For its part, Tehran has been coy about providing details about the state of its nuclear sites.
Some Iranian officials have said that the facilities sustained significant damage from US and Israeli attacks. But Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said last week that Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the strikes.
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
“They can go right up to the brink, and basically do everything except assemble the weapons in their final form and still be technically in compliance …
Swiss utility Axpo shut down one reactor unit at the Beznau nuclear power plant … Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents · England · Environment.
A protest in Tehran last week against the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear sites. … threats. Whether the cease-fire lasts will have implications for the …
Kehler disagrees with those who argue that nothing can deter some of adversaries who threaten the United States today, particularly violent extremists ..
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
The following article from “The Bulwark” provides additional evidence of Trump’s and his Whit6 House associates lying to the American — and the world’s — public citizens who rely on the media for accurate information about important “facts” that could affect their future welfare or the lack of it. The media also expects it from the various and sundry world leaders to tell the truth.
Here is an example of the negative importance of Trump’s lies taken from “The Bulwark” story below: The myth of total destruction was important because it underpinned Trump’s second lie: that no further negotiations or military operations were necessary to curtail the nuclear program. “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not” with Iran, the president told reporters at a NATO meeting on June 25. “We destroyed the nuclear,” he explained. “We blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come.”
And just a day or so later Trump was telling us that the Iran/U.S nuclear operations agreement would be back at the table before the end of the week, totally contradicting his previous two lies with a 3rd one, ending just two more days from now on July 4th. Iran said, “no”.
We have a president and a totally unqualified executive branch — as well as half of a congress — serving us here in the United States who are openly lying to the American public, including the media.
This must stop before Trump’s lies cause insurmountable concern and fear among the militaries and innocent citizens of our own and other countries — already severely divided — if for no other reason than Trump’s constant falsehoods being delivered by media and social networks to the leaders and citizens everywhere, irreparably threatening our lives as well as a world of innocent other species. ~llaw
Trump’s Team Is Lying About Iran’s WMD
He savaged Bush for distorting intelligence and overselling the military’s initial success in Iraq. Now Trump and his team are doing the same in Iran.
IN 2016, DONALD TRUMP REBUKED George W. Bush for peddling erroneous intelligence and false assurances about the war in Iraq. He accused Bush of deliberately misrepresenting Iraq’s nuclear weapons program, and he mocked Bush’s premature “Mission Accomplished” speech.
Bush and his administration “lied,” Trump charged at a Republican presidential debate in February 2016. “They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none. And they knew there were none.”
Two days after that debate, Trump derided the May 2003 speech in which Bush infamously proclaimed that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” and “the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Trump recalled that Bush had stood on an “aircraft carrier saying all sorts of wonderful things, how the war was essentially over. Guess what? Not over.”
Nine years later, Trump is doing what he accused Bush of doing. He has launched a preemptive military strike, this time in Iran. He has defended the strike by misrepresenting intelligence. He has prematurely declared the mission a total victory. And he is impugning the patriotism of anyone who challenges his lies.
ON JUNE 21, AFTER A WEEK of war between Israel and Iran, the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites. Three hours later, Trump went on TV and announced that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” The claim was absurd—the damage couldn’t have been assessed that quickly, and the operation hadn’t even targeted most of Iran’s enriched uranium—but Trump repeated it on June 22, June 25, June 26, June 27, and June 29.
Trump’s senior officials joined him in the lie. “Iran’s nuclear program is obliterated,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on June 25. “This was complete and total obliteration,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “There’s no doubt that it was obliterated,” said Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, referring to Iran’s underground nuclear site at Fordo.
“Obliterate” wasn’t just rhetoric. Trump was literally insisting that the three sites and Iran’s whole program had been annihilated. “It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on June 24. At the White House, he said of Fordo: “That place is gone. . . . That place is gone.”
The myth of total destruction was important because it underpinned Trump’s second lie: that no further negotiations or military operations were necessary to curtail the nuclear program. “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not” with Iran, the president told reporters at a NATO meeting on June 25. “We destroyed the nuclear,” he explained. “We blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come.”
Nor would America have to bomb Iran again. At a June 25 press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, a reporter asked Trump: “If the Iranians do rebuild, would the United States strike again?” Trump dismissed the question. “Sure,” he scoffed, “but I’m not going to have to worry about that. It’s gone for years.”
The basis of these assurances, Trump explained, wasn’t just the totality of the destruction. It was that Iran, according to Trump, was so devastated, exhausted, and demoralized that it no longer wanted to develop nuclear weapons. “They don’t even want to think about nuclear,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on June 24. At the press conference with Rutte, the president added: “I don’t think they’ll ever do it again. . . . I think they’ve had it. The last thing they want to do is enrich.”
IN ONE VENUE AFTER ANOTHER, reporters pressed Trump about evidence that his assurances were false or baseless. He refused to listen. For example, after the bombing, Iran’s foreign ministry reaffirmed that its nuclear enrichment program would continue. But on June 25, when a reporter asked Trump about those statements, he dismissed them. “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now,” he repeated. “No, they won’t do that.”
On June 27, in a Fox News interview, Maria Bartiromo questioned Trump about reports, apparently sourced to Israeli intelligence, that Iran had moved nearly 900 pounds of enriched uranium out of Fordo before the bombing. Trump waved off that possibility. “They didn’t move anything,” he insisted. Two days later, when a reporter asked about Pickaxe Mountain, another of the sites where satellite imagery suggested enriched uranium might be stored, Trump returned to his mantra that Iran had no interest in continuing such work: “The last thing they’re thinking about right now is enriched uranium. They’re not thinking about it.”
Meanwhile, the president made up stories about various damage assessments. On June 25, at a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Trump declared that “the high commission of Iran just said it [Fordo] was totally demolished.” No such commission exists, and statements from Iran’s government have said no such thing.
On Truth Social, Trump announced, “Israel just stated that the Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED!” But Israel’s actual assessments, quoted in a White House fact sheet, made no such boast. Officially, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission said Israeli and American strikes had “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.” Unofficially, Israeli officials told reporters that the extent of damage at the three targeted sites was unknown.
As Trump spewed his fictions and embellishments, he blithely contradicted himself. In the press conference with Rutte, he said of Fordo: “Iran went down to the site afterwards. They said it’s so devastated. . . . Two Iranians went down to see it, and they called back, and they said, ‘This place is gone.’” But two minutes later, Trump mentioned that “nobody can get in to see” the facility’s underground chambers, because “the tunnels are totally collapsed.”
In his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said Iran wouldn’t have moved enriched uranium out of Fordo before the bombing, because it hadn’t expected the site to be attacked. “Nobody thought we’d go after that site, because everybody said that site is impenetrable,” he explained. But seconds later—apparently forgetting or not caring that he had just brushed off the idea of Iranian preparations—he claimed that vehicles spotted at Fordo in the days before the strike were there “to seal up the entrance” with concrete.
Trump also alluded to unspecified intelligence that supposedly vindicated his boasts. At the NATO meeting, he said of Fordo: “We’ve collected additional intelligence. We’ve also spoken to people [who] have seen the site. And the site is obliterated.” He posted the same statement, again without evidence, on Truth Social. The next day, at a White House event, he asserted that “the target has now been proven to be obliterated, just as we said.”
TRUMP IS LYING. A week and a half after the bombing, he has offered no such proof. Instead, his flunkies have issued empty statements claiming, with zero discernible evidence, that “new intelligence” or “credible intelligence” backs him up. The charlatan who accused Bush of politicizing intelligence and lying about weapons of mass destruction is politicizing intelligence and lying about weapons of mass destruction.
But that’s not the worst of it. The worst part is that Trump, like Bush, is suggesting that anyone who disputes the president’s statements about a war is sabotaging America’s armed forces.
In 2005, as the Iraq war soured and the purported Iraqi nukes failed to turn up, Democrats accused Bush of having manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush responded by challenging his opponents’ patriotism. Their accusations of manipulation “send the wrong signal to our troops,” the president warned. “As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them.”
Vice President Dick Cheney joined Bush in this flag-waving counterattack. “American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions,” he fumed, while “back home, a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie.” One could argue, said Cheney—pretending not to endorse this argument himself—that the “untruthful charges against the commander-in-chief have an insidious effect on the war effort.”
Trump, having rebuked Bush and Cheney, is now copying their tactic of hiding behind the troops. At the NATO meeting, he called journalists “scum” for reporting, accurately, that according to a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment, the damage from the Iran strike was limited. He accused the press of “hurting” the mission’s pilots by “trying to minimize the attack.” And he said CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, one of the first reporters to reveal the assessment, “should be FIRED” for denying the truth—“TOTAL OBLITERATION!”—and for “attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad.”
Hegseth went further. At a Pentagon briefing, he lambasted journalists for challenging Trump’s tale of obliteration. “You, the press corps . . . It’s like in your DNA and in your blood to cheer against Trump,” the defense secretary raged. He accused reporters of trying “to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful. . . . You’re undermining the success of incredible B-2 pilots.”
Spare us the sanctimony. These lectures about undermining America’s warriors aren’t patriotic. They’re cynical and dishonest. The only thing lower than lying about what you accomplished in a war is hiding behind the people who actually accomplished it.Subscribed
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Nuclear War
Yellowstone Caldera & Other Volcanoes (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Nuclear energy is produced through two scientific processes, fission and fusion. Nuclear fission is the process of splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus …
… nuclear weapon. … As drone surveillance and autonomous systems become embedded in everyday geopolitics, war risks becoming the default condition, and …
Iran foreign minister Affairs Abbas Araghchi, at the United Nations, has ruled out a quick resumption of talks with the United States contradicting President Donald Trump said US negotiations with Tehran could restart as early as this week. (See the article for description and photo credits
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
This entire future nuclear use-based fiasco has turned into “the world against Donald Trump” and his fabrications about destroying or demolishing — or “obliterating” as Trump refers to the Iran nuclear facilities bombing.
There are new aerial photos showing Iran workers at at least one of the bombed “obliterated” sites apparently working at entrances and on opening air vents to the surface and other indications that the damage is being repaired. All of this and other evidence defies Trump’s assertions, and the watchdog IAEA (International Atomic Agency) has reported all along that Iran’s nuclear facilities will be operational in just a few months.
To try to cover his tracks, Trump has now told the American people and the world that renewed negotiations relative to Iran’s nuclear program(s) and facilities will begin as early as this week, which Iran also refutes. I would say it’s kind of hard to trust someone who invited you to negotiate, makes talks progress impossible with impossible demands, ends all talks, and then bombs your facilities in the middle of the night only days later.
All I can say is one or more lies piled upon others does not make a truth, no matter how you try to hide your constant mistakes. Trump represents a dangerous nuclear war threat, not only to the USA, but to the world. So stay tuned . . . ~llaw
Iran ‘needs more time’ to decide on resuming nuclear talks with US
Foreign minister’s comments come as the G7 calls for negotiations on a deal to address Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025 [Denis Balibouse/ Reuters]
Published On 1 Jul 20251 Jul 2025
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi has ruled out a quick resumption of talks with the United States after President Donald Trump said US negotiations with Tehran could restart as early as this week.
Araghchi’s comments on CBS Evening News on Monday came as the foreign ministers of the G7 issued a statement calling for dialogue on a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iran and the US were holding talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme when Israel launched attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure. The US later joined in Israel’s attacks, by bombing the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites on June 21.
Tehran insists its programme is peaceful, but the US and Israel say they want to ensure Iran cannot build a nuclear weapon.
Araghchi said negotiations would not start as quickly as Trump had indicated, and that Iran first needs assurances against further attacks.
“In order for us to decide to reengage, we would have to first ensure that America will not revert back to targeting us in a military attack during the negotiations,” the minister said.
“I think with all these considerations, we still need more time,” he said, although “the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut”.
Iran debates IAEA access as Trump threatens more strikes: Analysis
Next02:39
US reopens southern ports to Mexican cattle after screw-worm outbreak halted trade
02:26
France swelters as heatwave grips nation, sparking climate concerns
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
When it comes to nuclear energy, President Trump is making the right moves. He began last month with executive orders targeting everything from supply …
… nuclear power. By: David Montgomery – July 1, 2025 5:00 am. Constellation Energy, owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, plans …
US president denies multiple reports and accounts that say US strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.. (See image source, image credits, and description in “Al Jazeera” article below.) ~llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
And the Trump denials about the Iran/USA/Israel day-to-day facts relating to the “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities of by now well-known facts from knowledgeable sources everywhere except, of course, from the White House, his questionable and impossible to believe claims continues on, obviously creating more world-wide dissension and division on a daily basis.
For a more local understanding of these nuclear issues from the U.S. media, see The New York Times and the Washington Post (and others) in TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS DIGEST below . . .
Trump seems to be digging himself a deeper hole of international disbelief, not to mention his credibility with the American people, including millions of those who voted for him and may well be having serious second thoughts about his veracity, mental capacity, as well as his questionable ability to run the country in an acceptable way in not only ia possible war-like scenarios, but in general . . . ~llaw
US president denies multiple reports and accounts that say US strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
United States President Donald Trump speaks to the media on Friday, July 27 in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, DC, the US [File: Jacquelyn Martin/AP]
Published On 29 Jun 202529 Jun 2025
United States President Donald Trump has reiterated a vow not to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons following the end of Iran and Israel’s recent 12-day conflict, in which the US militarily intervened, and has stuck closely to his narrative as questions remain about the impact of US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
On the Fox News programme Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump repeated his claim that Iran was “weeks away” from making the weapons before Israel attacked on June 13. Nine days later, the US targeted Iran’s top three nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Both US intelligence and the United Nations nuclear watchdog have ascertained that Tehran was not building a nuclear arsenal. Iran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.
While Trump has said that the sites were “obliterated” by the US bombers, in the wake of the attacks, several major news organisations, citing intelligence sources, have reported that the US strikes did not destroy the facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Monday that it was unclear what damage had been sustained at the Fordow plant, which houses the bulk of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium needed to make a nuclear weapon.
On Sunday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran could restart uranium enrichment in a matter of months, while Trump insisted over the weekend that the attacks had set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back “by decades”.
According to an IAEA report last month, Iran has more than 400kg (880lb) of uranium enriched to up to 60 per cent purity, close to the roughly 90 per cent weapons grade – which is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’s ALL NUCLEAR DAILY DIGEST” RELATED MEDIA
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:30 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The last thing they’re thinking about right now …
Every nuclear plant in the world today is powered by fission reactions, which generate energy by splitting the nucleus of an atom. Fusion, by contrast …
During the attack on the sites, reports emerged that Iran had removed the enriched uranium from Fordow, but Trump claimed that was false. “It’s a very …
Dialogue, such as the proposed “Oppenheimer Dinner,” is necessary to initiate solutions and discuss the positive aspects of nuclear energy. The war in …
Just a quick update on a Sunday from CNN about how the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities was not, as Trump and his amateur Secretary of Defense insist, “obliterated” according to the United Nations’ evaluation by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and chief Rafael Grossi.
Grossi’s view seems to support the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency rather than that of Trump and his “Secretary of Defense”. The CNN link to to this Sunday’s story is posted here . . .
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi’s comments appear to support an early assessment from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency.
Elisabeth Mandl/Reuters/File
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
… about how U.S. strikes on Iran could impact nuclear proliferation globally … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The Daily. 0:00. 0:00. All Things …
Pressed by “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about those comments and whether Iran has given up its “ambitions to be a nuclear power,” Graham said, …
… power outages and health emergencies, underscoring the urgent need for resilient energy … Iranian officials weigh nuclear damage as ceasefire holds …
While the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly claimed that Iran’s nuclear program has been “obliterated,” preliminary assessments …
Trump always blames others for his own mistakes, and issues threats that he will likely never be able to carry out (I recommend this article from “Al Jazeera” for a weekend read. The link is posted just below along with the Headline if that’s all you care to read . . .
In my Saturday Opinion:
The problems and never-ending lies are from Trump, not the USA itself. We are the ones who need a “regime change”.
And I also have a question for today: If Trump’s bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear operations truthfully “OBLITERATED” their nuclear facilities, as Trump has claimed, why would he need to threaten Iran as soon as today that he would bomb them again if they restarted their uranium enriching program? llolloll! ~llaw
US president says Iranian supreme leader’s alleged ‘anger, hatred, disgust’ led him to drop work on sanctions relief.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Israel deals blows to Tehran nuclear weapons threats … Israel’s 12-days of targeted airstrikes in Iran — a defensive war to prevent a new holocaust — …
This photo provided by the White House shows US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff in the Situation Room at the White House on June 21. (See CNN article for photo credits) ~ llaw
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
To paraphrase Shakespeare, “Something is rotten in the Untied States’“. Why would we bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and then decide to secretly restart negotiations with Iran, doing an about-face and after-the-fact continue with talks about the nuclear facilities agreement if, as Trump claims, their nuclear enrichment facilities were “obliterated”?
. . . and in so doing give Iran $30 billion to contract with an outside uranium refinery (enrichment) facility to produce low-grade nuclear power plant uranium fuel to “prove” for us all that the attack on Iran’s enrichment facilities was successful, which is definitely questionable — when the the Pentagon will only say publicly that the “attack” did what it was designed to do”, and say nothing about “obliteration”.
Oh, and Israel announced that they want to attack Iran again in the future just in case they and the U.S. missed anything during the previous bombings.
If all of this makes sense to anyone, you should avoid dealing with carpetbaggers and grifters. I, myself, believe it is CYA for the president’s fictional use of that nasty and overstated word, “obliterated”. ~llaw
Exclusive: Details emerge of secret diplomatic efforts to restart Iran talks
The Trump administration has discussed possibly helping Iran access as much as $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program, easing sanctions, and freeing up billions of dollars in restricted Iranian funds – all part of an intensifying attempt to bring Tehran back to the negotiating table, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Key players from the US and the Middle East have talked with the Iranians behind the scenes even amid the flurry of military strikes in Iran and Israel over the past two weeks, the sources said. Those discussions have continued this week after a ceasefire deal was struck, the sources said.
Trump administration officials emphasized that several proposals have been floated. They are preliminary and evolving with one consistent non-negotiable: zero Iranian enrichment of uranium, which Iran has consistently said it needs. But at least one preliminary draft proposal, described to CNN by two sources, includes several incentives for Iran.
Some details were hashed out in a secret, hours-long meeting between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Gulf partners at the White House last Friday, the day before US military strikes against Iran, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Among the terms being discussed, which have not been previously reported, is an estimated $20-30 billion investment in a new Iranian non-enrichment nuclear program that would be used for civilian energy purposes, Trump administration officials and sources familiar with the proposal told CNN. One official insisted that money would not come directly from the US, which prefers its Arab partners foot the bill. Investment in Iran’s nuclear energy facilities has been discussed in previous rounds of nuclear talks in recent months.
“The US is willing to lead these talks” with Iran, the Trump administration official told CNN. “And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment.”
This photo provided by the White House shows US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff in the Situation Room at the White House on June 21.
Daniel Torok/The White House/Getty Images
Other incentives include potentially removing some sanctions on Iran and allowing Tehran to access the $6 billion currently sitting in foreign bank accounts that it is restricted from freely using, according to the draft described to CNN.
Another idea floated last week that is currently being considered is for US-backed allies in the Gulf to pay to replace the Fordow nuclear facility – which the US hit with bunker-buster bombs over the weekend – withthe non-enrichment program, two sources familiar with the matter said. It was not immediately clear if Iran would be able to use the site itself, nor was it clear how seriously that proposal was being considered.
“There are a lot of ideas being thrown around by different people and a lot of them are trying to be creative,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.
“I think it is entirely uncertain what will happen here,” said a separate source familiar with the first five rounds of talks between the US and Iran that occurred before the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
Witkoff told CNBC Wednesday that the US is seeking a “comprehensive peace agreement,” and a Trump administration official emphasized that all of the proposals are designed to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The US has said that Iran may have a nuclear program for peaceful civilian purposes, but that it cannot enrich the uranium for that program. Instead, the US has suggested Iran could import the enriched uranium. Witkoff likened the potential program to that of the United Arab Emirates.
“Now the issue and the conversation with Iran is going to be, how do we rebuild a better civil nuclear program for you that is non-enrichable?” he told CNBC.
The administration may have an opportunity to present a term sheet to the Iranians. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US and Iran would be sitting down next week – though Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said he was not aware of talks next week, and people involved in the planning said that details were still being worked out.
Sources familiar with the discussions told CNN that no dates have been set yet.
Despite the fervent diplomacy led by Witkoff behind the scenes, Trump this week publicly downplayed the necessity of a nuclear agreement, saying on Wednesday that he believed such an agreement was “not necessary.”
“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” he said.
While the president seemed publicly indifferent to hashing out a new deal after clinching a ceasefire agreement, many of his advisers believe the pursuit of a longer-term deal will ensure the ceasefire has longevity.
The terms that were developed in Witkoff’s secret meeting have been the subject of continued discussion between the US and Iran through regional interlocutors – primarily the Qataris – in recent days. Qatar also played a key role in brokering the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran earlier this week, and will be working very closely with the US to ensure that fighting between them will not resume, one of the sources added.
In this frame-grab made from video, missiles and air-defense interceptors illuminate the night sky over Doha after Iran launched an attack at Al Udeid Air Base on June 23.
Getty Images
US hopes strikes will prompt deal
There is hope within the Trump administration that after the events of the past two weeks Iran is more likely to accede to the US conditions and halt efforts that could bring it closer to a developing a nuclear weapon.
But Iranian experts cite the possible scenario that the Iranian regime may now decide that it needs a nuclear weapon. Earlier in the week the Iranian parliament approved legislation to end cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, signaling a desire to further conceal their nuclear program.
Prior to Israel’s military operation against Iran roughly two weeks ago, the US and Iranians had held five rounds of negotiations to try to reach a framework for a new nuclear deal. The US had presented a proposal to Tehran, and Iran was expected to respond during a planned sixth round of negotiations in Oman. Those talks were scuttled by Israel’s attacks on Iran.
On Saturday, ahead of US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites, the Trump administration communicated with Iran through intermediaries. Their message was twofold: forthcoming US strikes would be contained, but also that the US terms for a diplomatic deal with Iran were clear and simple: no uranium enrichment, sources said.
This June 24 satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows damage at Fordow enrichment facility after the US strikes on June 22.
Maxar Technologies/AP
Trump has been circumspect about the prospects of a deal, telling reporters after announcing talks with Iran next week: “We may sign an agreement, I don’t know.”
“I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear, we’re probably going to ask for that,” Trump said at a NATO summit on Wednesday.
The president added that his administration would be asking for the same type of commitments they sought in negotiations with Iran prior to the most recent conflict between Israel and Iran.
“The only thing we’d be asking for is what we were asking for before,” Trump said, adding that he wants “no nuclear.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser, said Wednesday that any such deal would depend on Iran’s willingness to negotiate directly with the US, not through intermediaries.
“We’d love to have peaceful relations with any country in the world. And so obviously that will depend on Iran’s willingness not just to engage in peace, but to negotiate directly with the United States, not through a third-country or fourth-country process,” Rubio said at a press conference alongside Trump in The Hague.
Witkoff on Wednesday said there are “signs” that an agreement can be reached.
“We’re having conversations with the Iranians. There are multiple interlocutors reaching out to us,” he told CNBC. “I think that they’re ready.”
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
The Trump administration has revealed new details about U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear … All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM The World. 0:00. 0 …
The Capitol is viewed in Washington on Monday, as Congress returns to work following President Donald Trump’s bombardment of three sites in Iran.
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion:
Note that this coverage by CNN of the USA strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is ongoing, and what you see here doesn’t include some of the updates that are posted every several minutes.
But what is clear is that there is a huge question mark about what Trump has reported to the American public as having “obliterated” Iran’s three major uranium enrichment facilities versus the full classified briefing, and that now there is an attempt to keep the full story of the attack out the hands of Congress even though the contradiction to Trump’s “obliteration” and his own DoD evaluation that the bombing was only “a two or three month setback” to Iran’s facilities.
The White House is trying to prove Trump correct about the devastation, and Congress wants a full report — which they have a right to — but has been told that they will not be allowed to review and evaluate the full military briefing.
One way or another, someone is covering up and trying to continue to deceive the actual results — and the American people — of the U.S. attack, and someone may have intentionally misrepresented the official intelligence briefing. I wonder who that could be . . . ~llaw
Expect more here tomorrow, because as for now, I am already well-behind the “knowledge” curve.
Senate receives classified briefing after Pentagon says Iran strikes went as planned
Gen. Caine shares info about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities
00:55
What we’re covering
• New details on US strikes: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine offered new details about the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities but did not provide evidence that its nuclear program was “obliterated,” as President Donald Trump claimed. Caine revealed that Iran attempted to cover the main shafts of the facilities with concrete ahead of the attack. The US Senate is now receiving a classified briefing on Iran.
• Khamenei weighs in: In his first comments since the ceasefire, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared victory over Israel, despite its killing of senior Iranian military leaders and strikes on nuclear sites. He also claimed the US gained nothing from its attack.
• Key centrifuges disabled: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the centrifuges at Fordow, one of Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities, are “no longer operational.” Separately, the nuclear watchdog said it has yet to receive a response from Tehran on resuming inspections.
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close dialog
US and Israel have told Iran to hand over enriched uranium, Israeli defense minister says
From CNN’s Dana Karni and Catherine Nicholls
The United States and Israel have told Iran it must hand over its enriched uranium, the Israeli defense minister said.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13, Israel Katz discussed the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that took place over the weekend.
“It was clear from the beginning that the strike would neutralize the surrounding infrastructure — it wouldn’t eliminate the (nuclear) material itself. Now there is a joint American-Israeli position saying to Iran, ‘You must hand over this material,’” Katz said in the interview, which aired Thursday.
The intention of Israel’s recent attacks on Iran was to “neutralize capabilities,” Katz said.
“Today, they have no way to produce a nuclear bomb, because we also destroyed the conversion facility that turns uranium into solid form,” he claimed.
1 hr 9 min ago
White House won’t say how it is limiting intelligence sharing with Congress
From CNN’s Simone Pathe
The White House declined to say Thursday how it will be limiting the classified information it shares with Congress, or how it will respond to lawmakers who insist their oversight duties necessitate access to the information.
The comments came shortly before a classified briefing on Iran by Trump administration officials for the Senate, which is now underway after being delayed by several days earlier this week.
“This administration wants to ensure that classified intelligence is not ending up in irresponsible hands, and that people who have the privilege of viewing this top-secret classified information are being responsible with it,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing.
“And unfortunately, clearly, someone who had their hands on this — and it was a very few people, very few number of people in our government who saw this report. … That person was irresponsible with it,” Leavitt added, referring to the early Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that found US strikes on Iran did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.
“We need to strengthen that process to protect our national security and protect the American public,” Leavitt said.
The Trump administration is planning to limit what it shares with Congress, a senior White House official told CNN on Wednesday, believing that the report came out after it was posted on Monday to CAPNET, a system used for sharing classified intelligence with Congress.
This post has been updated to reflect that the Senate briefing is underway.
59 min ago
White House brushes off Iranian supreme leader’s refusal to surrender: “You have to save face”
From CNN’s Kate Irby and Mostafa Salem
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday dismissed comments from Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Tehran will “never surrender.”
“When you have a totalitarian regime, you have to save face. I think any common-sense, open-minded person knows the truth about the precision strikes on Saturday night — they were wildly successful, and it’s what led to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, which the president is very grateful for,” Leavitt told reporters at a briefing.
Some context: The 86-year-old Khamenei issued his pre-recorded statement from an undisclosed private location Thursday. Khamenei predictably declared victory over Israel and the United States in his address, despite the killing of key Iranian leaders and the strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites.
While Trump has voiced confidence that US strikes dealt a massive blow to Iran’s nuclear aspirations, US assessments are still ongoing about the extent of the damage.
1 hr 6 min ago
Trump “very open” to Netanyahu visit, White House says
From CNN’s Kate Irby
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “expressed interest in coming to the White House” and President Donald Trump is “very open” to it, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
“The president is obviously very open to that, but we don’t have a date. When we do, we’ll let you all know,” Leavitt told reporters at a briefing.
Israeli media reported Thursday that Netanyahu is planning to visit Washington as early as the second week of July.
Remember: Trump and Netanyahu are close allies. The US leader denounced an ongoing corruption trial against his Israeli counterpart as a “witch hunt” Wednesday night, and Netanyahu has previously called Trump the “greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
1 hr 7 min ago
Trump pushing for more countries to join Abraham Accords, White House says
From CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo
President Donald Trump is pushing for more Gulf and Arab nations to join the Abraham Accords, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters today.
Leavitt said Trump’s effort to expand upon the landmark series of agreements from his first term, which saw Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, illustrates his commitment to “durable peace” efforts in the Middle East.
“The president and his team, namely special envoy (Steve) Witkoff, continue to be in communication with the Iranians, and especially our Gulf and Arab partners in the region, to come to an agreement with Iran,” said Leavitt.
“And we see a new era in which perhaps some of these Gulf and Arab states can sign on to the Abraham Accords,” Leavitt added, saying Trump had already requested the new Syrian president sign on to the accords when the two met in May.
2 hr ago
There was no opportunity to assassinate Khamenei during conflict with Iran, Israeli defense minister says
From CNN’s Dana Karni and Catherine Nicholls
There was no opportunity for Israel to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the 12 days of conflict between the two countries, Israel’s defense minister has said.
“If (Khamenei) had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Israel Katz said in an interview with Channel 13 that aired today.
Though there was not an opportunity to kill the Iranian leader during Israel’s “Rising Lion” operation, Katz said his country would have “taken him out” if one had arisen.
2 hr 5 min ago
Democrats hope classified briefing will provide better idea of damage dealt to Iran
From CNN’s Alison Main, Lauren Fox and Nicky Robertson
Sen. Dick Durbin told CNN he wants the “best report on what damage was done,” but also, “more importantly, we’ve got to start a conversation about what follows.” This includes whether hindering Iran’s nuclear program will require Americans on the ground in the region, he said.
Asked if there is already a trust deficit between the briefers and lawmakers after the briefing was delayed several days, Durbin responded: “I understand now why they canceled the first briefing: There was no good news, there’s bad news. Obliteration turned out to be something much different.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that three Iranian nuclear sites were “obliterated,” while CNN reported that the US strikes did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment.
Durbin also called reports that the White House plans to limit the classified information shared with Congress a “disappointment” and a “direct contradiction” to Congress’ constitutional war powers.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal emphasized, “we are still at a preliminary fact-finding stage.” He said remaining questions include what remains of Tehran’s nuclear program and the “mission still ahead, whether it is military or diplomatic.”
“Right now, there’s no strategy except for a confused and contradictory version of what actually happened, and that is a disservice so far as it exaggerates the degree of success. I think it was successful to a large extent, but by no means should we be saying, ‘Mission accomplished,’” he added.
2 hr 14 min ago
Israel’s “victory” against Iran “opens the door” to other peace agreements, Netanyahu says
From CNN’s Dana Karni, Catherine Nicholls and Hira Humayun
Israel’s “victory” against Iran provides opportunities for a “dramatic expansion of the peace agreements,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement today.
“We fought bravely against Iran and achieved a great victory. This victory opens the door to a dramatic expansion of the peace agreements,” Netanyahu said. “We are working on this vigorously.”
The prime minister said there is now a “window of opportunity” to defeat Hamas and ensure the release of hostages currently held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip.
“We must not waste even a single day,” Netanyahu said.
For his part, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also declared victory in the 12-day conflict, despite Israel’s killing of senior Iranian military leaders and strikes on nuclear sites.
More context: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon had hinted on Tuesday that Israel was open to new relationships with Arab nations.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, Danon said now is the “time to build bridges and partnerships in the region.” Danon did not point to any particular country but cited Israel’s normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco via the Abraham Accords.
2 hr 19 min ago
White House says “no indication” enriched uranium was removed from sites in Iran
From CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo
There is no evidence that Iran moved any enriched uranium from its nuclear sites before US strikes last weekend, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.
“There was no indication to the United States that any of that enriched uranium was moved prior to the strike from any of the sites,” Leavitt said when pressed about Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, the three facilities targeted in the attack.
President Donald Trump said earlier Thursday that “nothing was taken out of” Iran’s nuclear facilities ahead of the strikes.
“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this morning that in the days leading up to the attack, Iran attempted to cover the main shafts of the facilities with concrete.
2 hr 48 min ago
US Senate classified briefing on Iran set for this afternoon
From CNN’s Morgan Rimmer
The Capitol is viewed in Washington on Monday, as Congress returns to work following President Donald Trump’s bombardment of three sites in Iran.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The all-Senate classified briefing on the situation in Iran has been scheduled for 2 p.m. ET today, after being rescheduled from earlier in the week.
The Trump administration has faced criticism from top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, who have expressed frustration at the lack of communication about the US strikes in Iran. Some have warned the administration against manipulating facts ahead of the briefings.
The House is expected to be briefed on Friday.
2 hr 49 min ago
Iran’s president set to enact law suspending cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog
From CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting in Ilam, Iran, on June 12.
Iran’s Presidential website/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Iran has moved closer to approving a bill that would suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian state media IRNA reported on Thursday.
The bill is now on its final step before becoming law, having been sent to the country’s president for his signature. This follows its approval by Iran’s 12-member Guardian Council, which holds the power to vet legislation and oversee elections.
The Council’s approval came just one day after the Iranian parliament’s national security committee passed the bill to halt cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
The IAEA said on Thursday that it is “aware of these reports.” In a short statement shared with CNN, it added: “As of now, the IAEA has not received an official communication from Iran on this matter.”
According to IRNA, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said cooperation with IAEA will be suspended until Iran’s nuclear facilities are guaranteed security.
3 hr 8 min ago
Watch: Joint Chiefs chairman shares test footage of “bunker buster” bomb used in Iran strikes
From CNN staff
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Daine shared video of a test of the “bunker buster” bomb used during US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
A CNN analysis of satellite imagery showed that the US strikes left at least six large craters at the Fordow nuclear site, pointing to the use of bunker-busting bombs.
Watch the moment Cain shows the test footage:
3 hr 29 min ago
Pentagon reveals new details about US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Here’s what we know
From CNN staff
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (L), accompanied by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine (R), speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon today in Arlington, Virginia. The Department of Defense top officials gave an update after three Iranian nuclear facilities were struck by the US military last weekend and Iran countered by launching missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down on the Trump administration’s claim that the US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities “obliterated” the country’s nuclear program, during a Pentagon briefing this morning.
Meanwhile, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine offered new details on Operation Midnight Hammer.
Here’s what was revealed during the briefing:
Emphasis that operation went as planned: Caine said the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities went as planned, and the 30,000 pound bombs dropped “functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.” He added, “We know this through other means intelligence means that we have that were visibly, we were visibly able to see them. And we know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function.”
Iranians attempted to cover shafts at Fordow facility: Caine said that in the days leading up to the US’ attack, Iran attempted to cover the main shafts of the facilities with concrete. “The planners had to account for this, they accounted for everything. The cap was forcibly removed by the first weapon, and the main shaft was uncovered.”
“Nothing was taken out” of Iran’s nuclear facilities: “The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Hegseth made a similar point during today’s briefing. “I’m not aware of any intelligence that I’ve reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be — moved or otherwise,” Hegseth said when asked about the enriched uranium stockpiles.
Defense of “obliteration” claims and assessment timeline: Hegseth indicated that the administration’s claim that the sites were “obliterated” was based on the capability of the weapons used.Meanwhile, Caine deflected when asked what had changed in the US’ ability to assess the damage of its strikes on Iranian nuclear sites — just days after the chairman said a final assessment would take time. Caine also said he has “never been pressured” by Trump or Hegseth to provide a different intelligence assessment on the US’ military operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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