News of the World
06-27-2025, 08:38 AM
CHINA
Quote:China hit back at what it said was misinformation that stoked confrontation after NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte sounded the alarm about Beijing's "massive military buildup" and its support for Russia in the Ukraine war.
Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, accused Rutte of worsening global tensions with his remarks and vilifying China's "normal military development" at a press briefing on Thursday.
He called it "just another excuse of NATO in order to drastically increase the military spending and the reach beyond its border so as to have a presence in the Asia-Pacific."
NATO, a U.S.-led collective defensive alliance centered on Europe, has increasingly turned its attention to China in recent years, viewing the Asian giant as a systemic challenge due to its growing global influence, cyber activities, espionage and deepening strategic alignment with Russia.
Rutte Raises China Threat at NATO
Ahead of the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Rutte spoke of the importance of the alliance's relationship with Asia-Pacific powers, naming Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, specifically in the context of China's military buildup.
Two NATO allies, the U.S. and U.K., have embarked on a partnership with Australia, called AUKUS, to provide it with long-range nuclear submarines and enhance patrols in the Indo-Pacific region.
Rutte also said NATO is concerned about China and North Korea "ramping up" Russia in Moscow's "unprovoked attack on Ukraine". China primarily supports Russia with large oil purchases to help it sidestep Western sanctions. It denies sending any weapons.
China Says NATO 'Fanning the Flames'
China said NATO has ambitions beyond its key European region.
"NATO claims itself as a regional organization but keeps reaching beyond the geopolitical scope defined in its treaty and uses Eurasian security connectivity as an excuse to have a presence in the Asia-Pacific," Guo Jiakun said.
"The international community sees this clearly and countries in the Asia-Pacific are on high alert."
On Ukraine, Guo Jiakun said China is "committed to peace talks and actively promotes the political settlement of the crisis. We never provide weapons to any party to the conflict and strictly controls the export of dual-use articles."
Quote:A senior Chinese defense official on Thursday accused the U.S. of betraying Beijing's trust by continuing to sell arms to self-ruled Taiwan.
The remarks at the Chinese Defense Ministry's month-end press conference were a direct response to recent testimony given by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had described China as America's "pacing threat."
Why It Matters
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own, although the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled there. Taipei is a key U.S. security partner in the center of the so-called first island chain in the Western Pacific.
The U.S. is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier, allowing the island push back against Beijing's sovereignty claims for decades. However, Taipei may soon find itself overwhelmed by China's growing hard power across the Taiwan Strait.
At a Pentagon budget hearing earlier in June, Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee that recent Chinese military exercises around Taiwan point to Beijing's preparations to attack before the end of the decade.
What To Know
"The U.S. side has repeatedly broken its promises and insisted on arming Taiwan. This will only lead to its own fire and suffering," Chinese defense spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang told reporters in Beijing.
Washington sells defensive weapons to Taiwan under the auspices of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. China doesn't recognize the legitimacy of the U.S. domestic law and sought in February to warn President Donald Trump against further weapons transfers.
Zhang did not elaborate on what he meant by "broken its promises" but appeared to be referring to a 1982 U.S.-China joint communique, in which Beijing said Washington had committed to gradually reducing arms sales to Taipei. U.S. officials later clarified that the pledge was based on the condition that China also dial down its threats to take Taiwan by force.
China Sends Stark Warning to US Ally [Philippines]
Quote:China's military has condemned the Philippines over reports that a second U.S. intermediate-range missile system may soon be deployed to the Southeast Asian country.
"Inviting wolves into the house will ultimately harm oneself and destroy one's own home," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang warned Thursday, in a clear rebuke of United States involvement.
Newsweek reached out to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. Department of Defense for comment.
Why It Matters
The U.S. Army first deployed the Mid-Range Capability, or "Typhon," missile system to Luzon, the Philippines' main island, in the spring of 2024, ahead of joint drills with Philippine forces. The platform is capable of firing both Standard Missile-6 interceptors and Tomahawk missiles, which can reach parts of southern China.
Philippine officials maintain that the missile launcher is purely for defensive purposes and not directed at any particular country.
China has repeatedly called the presence of both systems destabilizing and demanded their removal. The issue has further strained ties with the U.S. defense treaty ally, already tense due to the long-running South China Sea dispute.
What To Know
During the Chinese Defense Ministry's regular press conference on Thursday, Zhang was asked about reports that another Typhon missile system could be stationed in the Philippines.
Zhang said the Asia-Pacific region "is not a gladiatorial arena for major powers" and warned Manila not to "repeat the mistakes of the past."
"The Philippines has intensified its efforts to introduce strategic and tactical weapons, tied itself to the U.S. chariot, and undermined regional security and stability by acting for the tiger, which seriously runs counter to the common interests of the people of the countries in the region," the official said.
Newsweek was unable to verify whether a second Typhon unit is currently scheduled for deployment in the Philippines. But a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official, speaking on background last month, told reporters the deployment would move forward "if they [the Philippines] say yes."
Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Roy Galido previously expressed interest in acquiring more Typhon units, citing their feasibility and role in archipelagic defense.
Quote:A military university in China's Hunan province has unveiled a mosquito-sized drone designed to carry out surveillance while evading detection.
"This type of micro-robot is especially suitable for special missions, such as information reconnaissance, on the battlefield," said Liang Hexiang, a student at the National University of Defence Technology, told China Central Television in a June 14 report.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment.
Why It Matters
Technological advances have enabled sensors, batteries, and other components to be packed into ever smaller frames, enabling development of smaller, lighter, and increasingly sophisticated drones.
Miniaturization opens up a host of possibilities, from a low-cost alternative to missiles to search and rescue operations. At the same time, it also raises concerns over personal privacy and criminal exploitation.
What To Know
The new device, developed at China's National University of Defence Technology, is just 2 centimeters long (under an inch), 3 cm wide (just over an inch), and weighs less than 0.2 grams. It appeared almost weightless between the researcher's fingers in the CCTV broadcast.
While the design pushes the limits of miniaturization, similar micro-robotics research has been ongoing elsewhere.
Another insectoid robot, Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory's RoboBee, achieves flight by beating its wings 120 times a second with artificial muscles. The goal is for swarms of these tiny robots to one day assist with tasks like rescue missions or artificial pollination.
Quote:Tensions flared this week between China and Japan after Tokyo detected a new Chinese structure in an energy-rich area of the East China Sea.
"China's oil and gas exploration activities in the East China Sea are conducted in undisputed waters under China's jurisdiction," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters Wednesday, after Tokyo lodged a formal protest.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministries with written requests for comment.
Why It Matters
The latest structure, along the line equidistant between the two countries, is the 20th in a sequence that has included suspected oil rigs and hydrocarbon platforms.
China and its U.S. ally Japan agreed in 2008 to codevelop gas fields in the region, but negotiations stalled before the two sides could reach an agreement on their official maritime boundaries.
While China has limited construction of these platforms to its own side of the median line, Japan believes the operations are draining oil and gas reserves from basins that straddle both countries' claims.
What To Know
Japan's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it had confirmed the installation of a new structure in the disputed zone and called China's unilateral resource development in the waterway "extremely regrettable."
Kanai Masaaki, head of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, "lodged a strong protest" with a senior Chinese diplomat at the Chinese embassy and urged the immediate resumption of talks.
Guo pushed back at Wednesday's press briefing, saying China does not accept Tokyo's complaint, which he called unwarranted.
China and Japan are also at odds over a collection of Tokyo-controlled islands, known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands and in China as the Diaoyu Islands.
China has increased both the frequency and size of its coast guard patrols in the area in recent years, contributing to a steady escalation in maritime tensions.
Quote:Japan will begin building bomb shelters next year on its remote islands closest to Taiwan amid fears that its far western territory could become a legitimate target for Chinese missiles if China and the United States go to war.
The plans point to a possible scenario in which Beijing orders preemptive strikes against major U.S. and allied bases in the Pacific before launching an amphibious invasion by sea and air across the Taiwan Strait to achieve what strategists call a fait accompli.
They also acknowledge the complex reality that Japan—the U.S. treaty ally hosting the most American troops anywhere in the world outside of U.S. territory—will in all probability not avoid the spillover of a superpower conflict so near its shores.
The Core of Core Issues
The Communist Party claims democratically governed Taiwan as part of Chinese territory, despite Taipei's objections. China refuses to rule out the use of force to unify the island with the mainland, and a widening hard power imbalance across the Taiwan Strait is fueling concerns that Beijing could soon compel Taipei with the threat of a hot war.
U.S. officials say Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his armies to be ready to take Taiwan by force by 2027. Whether the military capability will be matched by political intent cannot be known. Taiwan is a core issue in the U.S.-China relationship, Beijing's officials say.
At Asia's top security forum in Singapore last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said China's military was "rehearsing for the real deal," and that an attack "could be imminent." Beijing accused him of trying to stoke confrontation.
Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei but is bound by U.S. law to arm Taiwan and assist in its self-defense. Former President Joe Biden suggested he was prepared to defend Taiwan with American forces. President Donald Trump has kept his cards closer to the vest.
What is certain is that the United States likely cannot win a Pacific war against China without the help of Japan, whose vast territory of more than 14,000 islands spans 1,000 miles across the first and second island chains in the West Pacific.
Japan's Self-Defense Force is among the world's most well-armed militaries thanks in part to historically strong heavy industry and U.S. export licenses for the production of platforms like the F-35 stealth jet and the future operation of weapons like the Tomahawk cruise missile.
And although Japan's constitution explicitly renounces the use of force, Tokyo's reinterpretation of the document in recent years may allow its military to perform collective self-defense alongside U.S. and allied forces, even if Japan itself is not attacked.
The Plan
The Japanese government will subsidize the construction of long-stay evacuation facilities in municipalities in the Sakishima archipelago at the end of its Nansei or southwest island chain, starting next year with the westernmost inhabited territory of Yonaguni, less than 70 miles east of Taiwan.
Quote:Russia plans to train hundreds of Chinese military personnel this year on lessons learned from its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the Kyiv Post reported.
Instructors will cover methods for countering weapons systems used by Ukrainian forces that were produced by the United States and its NATO allies, a source in Ukraine's top intelligence agency told the outlet.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Chinese foreign ministries via email for comment outside of office hours.
Why It Matters
This training would further strengthen security ties between Russia and its "no limits" ally China, which in recent years has stepped up joint military exercises. Battlefield insights into U.S. weaponry could offer an advantage as China seeks to surpass the U.S. as the leading military power in the Indo-Pacific.
Security analysts say China has closely studied the war—and the world's response—and could apply these lessons in an invasion of Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing has vowed to unify with, through force if necessary.
What To Know
"The Kremlin has decided to allow Chinese military personnel to study and adopt the combat experience Russia has gained in its war against Ukraine," a source from Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate told the Kyiv Post.
Of the 600 People's Liberation Army personnel set to train at Russian military centers and bases, special focus will be given to air defense specialists, engineers, and artillery and tank operators, the report said.
Though Beijing presents itself as neutral, NATO leaders have called China a "decisive enabler" of Moscow, citing the flow of Chinese exports and economic support that have sustained the 40-month war.
Quote:An initiative supported by California Governor Gavin Newsom is part of a broader attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to build networks of influence in the biggest U.S. state, according to a new report from an advocacy group that is critical of Beijing's human rights record in Hong Kong.
Newsom's office did not respond to Newsweek requests for comment. A California business association that has supported the initiative said it was purely economic and not political. China's consulate in San Francisco defended it as an example of mutually beneficial cooperation.
The Washington, D.C.-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK) said it had investigated a "Bay to Bay" initiative aiming to link San Franscisco's Bay Area to the burgeoning Greater Bay Area in southern China - a project presented by Chinese officials as an opportunity for business and to address climate change.
"In these subnational engagements, the U.S. state and local officials are dealing with an apparatus orchestrated and led by China's central government and designed to benefit the CCP," according to the report, Hong Kong's Greater Bay Area and the CCP's Strategy to Influence U.S. State and Local Officials, published on Wednesday by the Washington, D.C.-based Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), an advocacy group for freedom and for political prisoners in Hong Kong.
Such efforts could be "incompatible with US interests and values," said the author, Shannon Van Sant, CFHK's Strategy and Public Affairs Advisor, who cited the positions of those who had taken part in meetings from the Chinese side as well as Chinese state media accounts of meetings, Chinese government and U.S. business websites and other documents, including photographs.
The initiative was similar to China's Belt and Road Initiative, or to its global network of "sister city" relationships that seeks to develop closer relationships with local officials - but that carried political risks as the ties also transmitted central government policy and influence and interference, said Van Sant. On the Chinese side there were plans to extend it to New York and Vancouver, she said.
The Bay to Bay initiative was supported by San Francisco's Bay Area Council, a business association focused on developing the local economy.
Reached by telephone, John Grubb, Chief Operating Officer of the Bay Area Council, told Newsweek that the council was a business group and not a political organization. Nevertheless it was aware of political risks: "So our work, everything, is always 'eyes wide open'."
"We're Team players here. We're part of the U.S. team," Grubb said.
"Our engagement was that this is an economic strategy, okay, in between these regions with China, to try to better integrate. And that's been our conversation. It hasn't been about other political or ideological aspects of that," Grubb said.
A spokesperson for the Chinese consulate general in San Francisco told Newsweek: "The people of China and California share a long-standing tradition of friendship. Based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, the two sides have had cooperation that delivers tangible benefits to both peoples and injects vitality into China-US relations."
MIDDLE EAST WAR - DURING THE CEASEFIRE
Quote:China has responded to President Donald Trump's cryptic post about its purchases of Iranian oil, saying it would prioritize its national interests.
Trump, having brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, posted to Truth Social that China could continue purchasing Iranian oil and may also buy it from the U.S.
It cut across a long-running American policy of deterring Iranian oil exports through sanctions to weaken the Tehran regime's most important source of revenue. The U.S. has recently sanctioned Chinese "teapot" refineries for processing Iranian oil.
"China will take legitimate measures to safeguard its energy security based on its own national interests," Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press briefing on Wednesday, June 25, in response to a question about the post.
Trump had posted on Tuesday that "China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also. It was my Great Honor to make this happen!"
But the president was not signaling a reversal of any sanctions, a senior White House official later told the Financial Times.
They clarified that Trump was referring to the ceasefire, meaning the Strait of Hormuz would remain open, so China would not suffer financial pain.
Iran Threatened Strait of Hormuz
Before the ceasefire, Iran had touted the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital strategic shipping route through which around 20 percent of the global oil and gas trade passes, as a potential retaliation for U.S. strikes in its nuclear facilities.
Iran would have suffered great economic harm, but so too would its trading partners, particularly China, the largest purchaser of Iranian oil.
"The Persian Gulf and nearby waters are an important route for international trade in goods and energy," China's Washington Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Newsweek prior to the ceasefire.
"Keeping the region safe and stable serves the common interests of the international community.
"China calls on the international community to step up effort to promote de-escalation of the conflict, and prevent the regional turmoil from having a greater impact on global economic growth."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had urged China to tell Iran not to close the strait, calling it an act of "economic suicide" in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
Oil prices rebounded slightly after falling about 6 percent on Tuesday, on hopes that the brief war would not hinder the global flow of crude.
Yes, even the Iranian admit they're forced to rethink their nuclear sites' security measures after the B-2 bombings, contrary to what outlets like CNN love to claim publicly.
Quote:The Israel Atomic Energy Commission backed President Donald Trump's assessment of the damage done to the Iranian nuclear site at Fordow, saying the U.S. strike "destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable."
Separately, Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told Al Jazeera that "our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure" by the U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Trump had said the strike resulted in "total obliteration" of the Fordow facility, which is deep underground inside a mountain. That characterization was called into question by a leaked U.S. intelligence report, but the White House called the early assessment false.
"We assess that the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran's military nuclear program, has set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years," said the statement from the Israeli commission.
"The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material."
Trump referred to the Israeli statement and the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman's comments during his press conference at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, underscoring his original assessment of the damage to Fordow.
The president lashed out at media reporting of the leaked intelligence assessment, saying the B-2 pilots who conducted the strikes had been "demeaned" in an effort to attack him politically.
Trump Says Iran Nuclear Talks Soon
Iran has vowed to continue with its nuclear program, which it says is for civilian energy purposes. But Iran has enriched uranium to a level far beyond what is needed for energy, and closer to what is required for a nuclear bomb.
Trump has said Iran should not rebuild its nuclear facilities or seek to enrich uranium, and that he would not allow it to build a bomb, striking militarily again if he saw it necessary. However, he also said that he believes the 12-day conflict is now at its conclusion.
"We're going to talk to them next week, with Iran," Trump said at the NATO summit, referring to the nuclear issue. "We may sign an agreement. I don't know."
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the attacks will have "serious and profound effects on the course of the nuclear program," adding: "We need to rethink how we protect our nuclear facilities."
Quote:Iran's leadership should reconsider its nuclear ambitions and settle for the symbolic win after its retaliatory strikes against the United States, a prominent Chinese commentator said on Tuesday as oil prices dropped for the first time in a week amid a shaky ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump.
"Iranian activities associated with the manufacture of nuclear weapons, even if they are for civilian use, will be difficult to continue in the future. From a realist perspective, Iran should rethink its nuclear path," said former Global Times editor Hu Xijin, who led the nationalistic state-run newspaper from 2005-2021.
Why It Matters
Hu's comments, aimed at nearly 25 million followers on China's X-like microblogging website Weibo, are not directly representative of the Chinese government's views. However, the prolific public commentator is one of China's best-know propagandists and his posts credibly capture part of the mood in the country.
China is a major extra-regional stakeholder in stability in the Middle East, where over half of its oil imports originate—some covertly from Iran. It has been Tehran's largest trading partner for over a decade, including for sanctioned goods like military hardware and material to make missile propellant.
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek: "The Persian Gulf and nearby waters are an important route for international trade in goods and energy. Keeping the region safe and stable serves the common interests of the international community."
What To Know
Iran was the "biggest loser" in the conflict with Israel and the United States, Hu said, citing the heavy blow dealt to its civil-military infrastructure and the killing of several leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, followed by the U.S. bombing of three nuclear facilities over the weekend.
The final days of the Israel-Iran conflict were "performative," with both nations and the U.S. emerging with something to call a "victory," according to Hu, who posted his thoughts after Trump declared what is currently a vulnerable and uncertain ceasefire.
Quote:A top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stunned observers by appearing publicly in Tehran, quashing media reports that he had been killed in a 12-day conflict with Israel.
Videos rapidly circulated on social media showing General Esmail Qaani celebrating with jubilant crowds at a rally in Tehran to celebrate what Iranian authorities are calling a victory. He was not among the many senior figures that Israel's armed forces said they had killed.
Newsweek has reached out to the Israel and Iran's foreign ministries for comment.
Why It Matters
Qaani's public reappearance is a pivotal moment for Iran's military leadership as a symbol that it has not been entirely eliminated in the Israeli strikes.
As commander of the IRGC's Quds Force, responsible for Iran's foreign operations and alliances, he is central to Tehran's regional strategy. Qaani's visibility projects enduring strength by the IRGC and signals Iran's determination to withstand international pressure.
What to Know
Qaani's reappearance follows a conflict between Israel and Iran, with U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, and concluded with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump. Israel has claimed responsibility for killing at least 10 senior Iranian commanders during the campaign, including top figures from the IRGC and its intelligence and aerospace divisions.
Reports of Qaani's death first surfaced on June 13, when Israel launched a series of airstrikes across Iran. A New York Times report quoted sources as saying Qaani had been among several senior Iranian military officials killed in the initial wave of attacks.
On Tuesday, a video posted on the social media account of Iran's Fars News Agency showed Qaani celebrating alongside crowds in Tehran, appearing relaxed as he waved to supporters during the government-backed victory rally.
Who Is Esmail Qaani?
Esmail Qaani was appointed to lead the Quds Force in January 2020, following the U.S. assassination of his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad. While Soleimani was well-known for his public image and charismatic leadership, Qaani has kept a lower profile, both domestically and abroad. He is known for his prior work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including anti-narcotics operations and support for the Northern Alliance, an alliance of anti-Taliban groups.
Nuclear Negotiator Also Alive
Another Iranian official previously reported dead has reemerged. Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a key nuclear negotiator, was initially reported by outlets including CNN, to have been killed in an Israeli strike on his Tehran residence. However, Iranian state media later confirmed that he is "alive and ready to sacrifice."
Later, Shamkhani took to social media, posting: "It was my fate to survive wounded—so I remain, still the reason for the enemy's hatred."
Quote:New imagery released by a Chinese commercial satellite company has revealed the destruction of an alleged Iranian drone factory during Israel's two-week air campaign against Iran.
Newsweek has contacted the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.
Why It Matters
Iran's civilian-military infrastructure was targeted by a wave of Israeli airstrikes that began in the early hours of June 13 local time, with the attacks also targeting nuclear facilities in Tehran and in other cities.
Iran's expanding drone program is central to its shift toward asymmetric warfare and regional deterrence. Tehran said it has accelerated the development and deployment of diverse drone facilities and systems. This growing capability has alarmed U.S. lawmakers.
What To Know
The undated satellite photograph published by China's MizarVision on Wednesday showed a warehouse near Mehrabad Airport in western Tehran that had been completely leveled, although the exact date of the hit was unclear.
Open-source analyst Mehdi H., commenting on similar satellite imagery captured by Maxar on Tuesday, said the warehouse struck by the IDF had been used by the Iranian state-owned company Quds Aviation Industries to design and build unmanned aerial vehicles including its Mohajer drones. Newsweek could not independently verify the claim.
According to the BBC, images authenticated in the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes showed that Mehrabad Airport had been struck several times, with satellite imagery revealing several damaged buildings around the area, including warehouses linked to Iran's defense industry.
During its military offensive, the IDF said it had destroyed F-14 jets in central Iran and targeted military sites.
Quote:Iran executed three men on Wednesday accused of spying for Israel, raising the total number of executions linked to espionage during the recent conflict to six, according to state-run media. The men were charged with smuggling "assassination equipment" and aiding sabotage operations targeting critical Iranian infrastructure.
These executions come amid a sweeping crackdown that has seen over 700 arrests in just 12 days. The arrests and executions follow a ceasefire that ended nearly two weeks of intense drone and missile strikes between the two countries. Despite the temporary pause in direct hostilities, Tehran's purge of alleged Israeli collaborators continues aggressively, underscoring the regime's determination to dismantle a sprawling network of spies within its borders.
Why It Matters
Iran's sweeping crackdown has exposed the depth of Israel's alleged infiltration into Iranian territory. Tehran claims that Israeli operatives, aided by domestic collaborators, enabled precision strikes and assassinations inside the country during the recent conflict. This suggests Israel's intelligence services are now capable of influencing the battlefield with help from deeply embedded human assets.
What to Know
Iranian authorities have disclosed that many of the arrested and executed spies come from ethnic minority groups, primarily Kurds and Azeris near Iran's western and northwestern borders. State media reports that Israeli intelligence leverages these communities' socioeconomic vulnerabilities and deep local knowledge to recruit operatives who use encrypted messaging apps and cryptocurrency to transmit sensitive military and nuclear-related information, complicating Tehran's detection efforts.
Training and Collaboration
Among the accused spies are individuals believed to have provided critical intelligence enabling Israeli drone and missile strikes on Iranian targets. According to FarsNews, some operatives received training abroad in countries including Georgia and Nepal, arranged by Israeli intelligence. Tehran also accuses Iranian expatriates and dissident groups sympathetic to Israel of supporting logistics, communication, and funding.
According to a recent Economist report, Israeli intelligence's multi-year, high-tech espionage campaign—including Mossad agents posing as foreign nationals—has played a pivotal role in gathering intelligence on Iran's accelerating nuclear program and missile capabilities, with alleged cooperation from U.S. agencies.
Human Rights Groups Warning
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned Iran's intensifying crackdown following the ceasefire that ended nearly two weeks of conflict. They warn the government is using the conflict as a pretext to escalate repression, citing concerns over forced confessions, lack of due process, and the rising use of capital punishment. Rights advocates are calling for transparent investigations and judicial oversight, warning that the wave of arrests and executions could further destabilize an already fragile and volatile situation.
Quote:An Iranian official said Washington must compensate Iran for damaging its facilities. The U.S. and Israel said recent strikes had severely damaged Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment.
Why It Matters
The U.S. strikes on Iran marked a major escalation in Washington's longstanding tensions with Tehran. President Donald Trump claimed the strike caused the "total obliteration" of the Fordow nuclear facility, located deep underground inside a mountain and the latest hostilities disrupted U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.
What To Know
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tehran will file a complaint with the United Nations over the damage to its nuclear facilities and asserted that the U.S. must provide compensation, in statements to Lebanese outlet Al-Mayadeen.
His comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged on Wednesday significant damage to its nuclear facilities following a 12-day conflict that began with Israeli strikes on key nuclear, missile, and military sites across Iran.
After the White House rejected a report downplaying the U.S. strikes' impact, new intelligence claims Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed, according to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
"If the Iranians chose to rebuild, they would have to rebuild all three facilities (Natanz, Fordow, Esfahan) entirely, which would likely take years to do," Gabbard wrote on her X account. Gabbard had previously assessed Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapons' program.
Israel's Atomic Energy Commission backed Trump's assessment of the damage done to the Iranian nuclear site at Fordow.
A spokesperson for Iran's Health Ministry, Hossein Kermanpour, said 627 people were killed and 4,870 were injured in the conflict, with the highest casualty figures recorded in Tehran.
"I make no judgments, I do not describe the painful scenes of the arrival of injured children, mothers, and civilians, and I leave it to the judgment of humanity's conscience today!," Kermanpour posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Dozens of Iranian generals are believed to have been killed by Israel. No conclusive numbers have been issued but Iran has confirmed the killing of several senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Quote:Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel and the U.S. in his first comments since the recent war ended with a ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump.
Khamenei also said Iran had delivered a "heavy slap to the U.S.'s face" by firing missiles at its Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and warned it against future attacks or "the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price." He accused the U.S. of seeking Iranian surrender above all else.
The Iranian leader played down the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities, accusing Trump of "exaggerating" the results of his strikes. No important damage had happened, Khamenei said, after Trump described it as "total obliteration".
Israel and the U.S. struck the Iranian nuclear program hard, saying they destroyed key facilities to prevent Tehran from developing a bomb. Israel also hit Iranian military sites and killed dozens of key senior personnel, including nuclear scientists.
Operation Rising Lion, as the Israelis called it, with the addition of U.S. strikes against nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, delivered a powerful blow to the Iranian regime and exposed the weakness of the country's defenses.
Iran retaliated against Israel with missiles and drones, which were mostly intercepted, though some struck cities and caused deaths and destruction. But Tehran's response did not match what the Israeli strikes had achieved in Iran.
During the 12-day war, Khamenei took shelter as Israel bombed sites across Iran, including the capital Tehran. Trump warned Khamenei that the U.S. knew where he was hiding and the Iranian leader was an "easy target."
Khamenei Claims Victory, Warns US
"I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime," Khamenei posted to his English-language X account on Thursday ahead of the release of a video statement.
"With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic."
Khamenei said the U.S. joined in striking Iran "because it felt that if it didn't, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed," saying that Washington had "achieved nothing" with its intervention.
"The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the U.S.'s face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key U.S. bases in the region," Khamenei said.
"The fact that the Islamic Republic has access to key U.S. centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary is a significant matter. Such an action can be repeated in the future too.
"Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price."
I guess the ayatollah's glasses don't make him see things clearly. 
Quote:Trump administration officials on Tuesday slammed a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment of the damage done to Iran’s nuclear facilities by weekend US airstrikes that the president has touted as a massive success.
The classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) bomb damage assessment — deemed a “low confidence” estimation of the effectiveness of Saturday’s strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites — reportedly determined that Iran could bring its nuclear program back online as quickly as one to two months, according to Fox News.
On the high end, estimates indicate that Iran could restart uranium enrichment within a year, according to those who viewed the DIA report.
CNN, which first reported on the leaked classified document, noted that assessments are ongoing and could change, but the DIA believes Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed by the “bunker buster” bombs dropped on the nuclear facilities.
The White House strongly disagrees with the DIA’s preliminary assessment.
“This alleged ‘assessment’ is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” she added.
“Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,” Leavitt argued.
The assessment was reportedly based on satellite images and electronic communications that have been intercepted since the strikes.
The report focuses on the damage done to Fordow, a facility buried under mountains south of Tehran, which was hit by 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrators.
The DIA reportedly assessed that the entrances to the facility caved in as a result of the strike, and that some infrastructure was destroyed, but that the Iranians could still dig out, repair or rebuild the site.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff charged that any suggestion the US did not achieve its military objectives in Iran is “completely preposterous.”
“I’ve read all the damage assessment reports from not just our government, but from other governments, and I’m not going to get into anything that’s top secret, but let me tell you for sure what happened here,” Witkoff said during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
Quote:President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were adamant Thursday that Iran wasn’t able to move any highly enriched uranium prior to Saturday’s US strikes on three nuclear facilities — with Trump insisting “nothing was taken out” before the bombings.
Trump, 79, dismissed suggestions Iran may have been able to spirit away its cache in the days prior to the attacks after satellite imagery emerged of cargo-style trucks lined up outside Fordow — one of the three targeted sites — late last week.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” he added, echoing his earlier claims that the US acted too quickly for Iran to prepare in advance.
Hegseth, too, doubled down on the extent of the US-caused destruction, telling a Pentagon press briefing that he saw no sign Tehran had managed to relocate any uranium ahead of the blasts.
“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 during the combative briefing.
He noted that the Pentagon was “looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where.”
Hegseth, who was joined by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, also accused lefty media outlets of downplaying the success of the strikes, which Trump has repeatedly insisted “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
The defense chief ripped the leak of a preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency that suggested the 14 30,000-pound heavy-duty bunker-buster bombs the US dropped may have only set back Iran by months.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Hegseth declared.
Quote:President Trump claimed Thursday that congressional Democrats leaked a preliminary Pentagon intelligence assessment that questioned the impact of Saturday’s airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
“The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It’s unclear if Trump has evidence pointing to a culprit as the FBI investigates the Tuesday leak of the Defense Intelligence Agency assessment drafted shortly after the strike that said Iran’s nuclear development may only have been set back months.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said shortly before Trump’s claim that Democrats in Congress may have been responsible — though she described no specific evidence and said no conclusions had been made.
“It could have been someone in the intelligence community, or it could have been someone on Capitol Hill who had access to this document. The FBI is searching for that person,” Leavitt told reporters.
“We have seen this playbook run before, where you have people in the intelligence community — or perhaps on Capitol Hill, we don’t know — but I believe the FBI is investigating to find out who that leaker was, because it’s illegal and they should be held accountable.”
Democrats have complained that too little information has been shared about Trump’s unprecedented strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand first reported on the preliminary DIA assessment Tuesday — and the New York Times, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post and the Associated Press quickly followed suit.
The rapid confirmation suggests that someone who regularly engages with the media served at minimum as a corroborating source for news outlets.
Leavitt said Thursday that very few people had access to the DIA report before Tuesday’s leak, which the White House alleges was done to undermine the significance of the strikes that resulted in a cease-fire between Iran and Israel and what US agencies and international assessors say was massive damage.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, brushed aside Trump’s threat to prosecute Democrats.
“I have been extraordinarily consistent that leaks of any kind should be prosecuted. I simply wish that the administration would adhere to that same level of secrecy about classified information that shouldn’t be shared on non-classified channels like Signal,” Warner told reporters after senators got a classified briefing on the strikes.
Both Warner and committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) declined to answer questions from The Post about whether they knew of the DIA’s preliminary assessment before it was leaked to CNN.
Quote:Saturday’s US strike on Iran’s Fordow nuclear fuel enrichment plant was 15 years in the making, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Caine said Thursday — revealing that the heavy-duty bunker bombs used were designed specifically for the deeply buried site.
The US first learned in 2009 of the presence of the Fordow plant, which is cut about half a mile into the side of a mountain.
Officials and a Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) officer briefed on the subject quickly determined that the US did not have a “weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target,” Caine said.
So they began construction of the 30,000-pound GBU-57 series MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) bunker-busters, all while everyday Americans had no clue of the threats Tehran posed.
“Weaponeering is the science of evaluating a target,” Caine said. “… Ultimately, weaponeering is determining the right weapon and fuse combination to achieve the desired effects and maximum destruction against a target.”
“In the case of Fordow, the DTRA team understood with a high degree of confidence the elements of the target required to kill its functions and the weapons were designed, planned and delivered to ensure that they achieve the effects in the mission space.”
At one point, Caine added, “we had so many PhDs working on the MOP program doing modeling and simulation that we were — quietly and in a secret way — the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America.”
Together, the Pentagon worked with industry and other tacticians to develop the GBU-57 — which can only be dropped by B-2 bombers — testing it “over and over again.”
“(They) tried different options, tried more after that, they accomplished hundreds of test shots and dropped many full scale weapons against extremely realistic targets for a single purpose: kill this target,” the chairman said.
The largest bomb in the Pentagon’s arsenal, the GBU-57 is “comprised of steel, explosive and a fuse programmed specifically for each weapon to achieve a particular effect inside the target,” Caine went on.
“Each weapon had a unique desired impact, angle, arrival, final heading and a fuse setting,” he said. “The fuse is effectively what tells the bomb when to function. A longer delay in a fuse, the deeper the weapon will penetrate and drive into the target.”
With the benefit of 15 years of intelligence analysis, the Pentagon designed Saturday’s strike to Fordow’s specifications — targeting two ventilation shafts that would funnel the bunker busters deep inside plant.
“The Iranians attempted to cover the shafts with concrete to try to prevent an attack,” Caine said. “The planners had to account for this — they accounted for everything. The [concrete] cap was forcibly removed by the first weapon and the main shaft was uncovered.”
Additionally, four bombs had to enter the main exhaust shaft, “move down into the complex at greater than 1000 feet per second and explode in the mission space.”
Quote:Military strikes on Iran's nuclear sites will prompt Tehran to pursue its atomic ambitions in secret, much like the way North Korea operates its program, Representative Jim Himes has said.
The Connecticut Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC how he was worried the attack on Iranian nuclear sites would force Tehran to give up diplomacy and end any chances of transparency over its nuclear program.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has boasted that U.S. strikes had destroyed Iran's ability to develop a nuclear bomb, but early intelligence reports cited by CNN and The New York Times have raised doubts about the operation's effectiveness.
The comments from Himes echo concerns that if Iran's nuclear program is not fully incapacitated, Tehran will pursue its program in secret, away from the eyes of the West, which could pose a bigger long-term security risk.
What To Know
Himes is a Democrat among the so-called "Gang of Eight" leaders within Congress who are briefed on classified intelligence matters.
In his interview on MSNBC, he told host Jen Psaki that from Iran's perspective, the diplomatic route over its nuclear program did not work, given that in 2018, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had slowed Tehran's progress toward a nuclear weapon.
Then, when negotiations took place earlier this month, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, which Tehran would take as proof that diplomacy did not work, Himes said.
The congressman added that Iran might view its only alternative as taking a leaf out of North Korea's book and developing a bomb in secret, wary of what has happened to the countries that gave up their nuclear weapons, like Ukraine and Libya.
Quote:President Trump said Wednesday that US officials will meet with their Iranian counterparts next week — following Saturday’s US airstrikes that he said buried the nation’s enriched uranium under “30 stories” of rubble.
“We’re going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don’t know,” Trump said at a press conference following the annual NATO summit at The Hague.
Trump did not say where the meeting would occur or who would rep the US after he helped broker a cease-fire Monday between Iran and Israel, ending what he has dubbed the “12-Day War.”
“I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear. We’re probably going to ask for that, but they’re not going to be doing it anyway.”
Trump then reiterated: “We may sign an agreement, [but] I don’t care if I have an agreement or not.”
The president also said he believes nearly 900 pounds of enriched uranium remain underneath 300 feet of debris at the Fordow enrichment site, which was hit with a dozen 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs.
“We think everything nuclear is down there, they didn’t take it out,” he said.
“We think we hit them so hard and so fast, they didn’t get to move. And if you knew about that material, it’s very hard and very dangerous to move,” the president said.
“They call it dust, but it’s very heavy, it’s very, very hard to move. And they were way down. You know, they were 30 stories down. They’re literally 30-35 stories down underground. We think it’s covered with granite, concrete and steel.”
International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi said Tuesday that the United Nations agency didn’t know where the uranium was located.
“We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material,” Grossi told Fox News, though he noted it is enriched to 60% purity, less than the 90-93% needed for nuclear weapons.
Trump, 79, used the press conference before departing Europe to rip the “real scum” in the press who he accused of downplaying the impact of his air raids on Iran, which he likened to the US dropping atomic weapons on Japan to end World War II in 1945.
Quote:President Donald Trump was hailed at the 2025 NATO Summit after the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised Trump as a "man of strength" and a "man of peace."
"I just want to recognize your decisive action on Iran," Rutte said at the start of his joint remarks with the president. "You are a man of strength, but you are also a man of peace. And the fact that you are now also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran— I really want to commend you for that. I think this is important for the whole world."
While en route to the Netherlands for the summit, Trump shared several texts from Rutte in which the NATO leader expressed his support for the president’s move against Iran.
"Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do. It makes us all safer," Rutte wrote in the texts that Trump shared on Truth Social.
Rutte also praised Trump’s effort to get NATO members to pay more and said the president was "flying into another big success" after all countries—except Spain—agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defense. He added that Trump achieved something "NO American president in decades could get done."
Leaders of NATO member states had mixed reactions to the strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, with several calling for de-escalation while acknowledging the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to global security.
"Iran’s nuclear program is a grave threat to international security. Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer wrote on X. "The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a similar statement, adding: "As G7 leaders agreed in Kananaskis, the resolution of the Iranian crisis should lead to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza."
UKRAINE WAR
Quote:A Russian newspaper branded Donald Trump the "President of War" following a U.S. military operation against Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
U.S. bombers deployed 30,000-pound "bunker busters" on Iran's underground nuclear facilities, ending days of speculation over whether Trump would authorize direct military intervention for his objective to put "a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terror."
The developments were published by several state-owned and independent Russian newspapers, including Rossiskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Gazeta, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moskovsky Komsomolets and Kommersant, according to BBC's Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg.
Why It Matters
The U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure has far-reaching impact for American security interests, global energy markets and the volatile Middle East region. Israel and Iran are waging direct hostilities, with hundreds killed as both sides launch missiles.
The intervention by Washington could define regional stability for years, test U.S. alliances in Europe and the Gulf, and set dangerous precedents over nuclear nonproliferation enforcement. Congressional leaders and protesters nationwide have warned of the risk of a third U.S. war in the Middle East this century.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the strikes as "unprovoked aggression," and coverage in major Russian outlets questioned the long-term fallout for global stability and Russia's regional interests.
What To Know
Over the weekend, the U.S. launched strikes against three Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan—using "bunker-buster" bombs weighing up to 30,000 pounds. The attack, dubbed Iran Operation Midnight Hammer, involved more than 125 U.S. military aircraft.
Putin on Monday condemned the U.S. strikes as "an absolutely unprovoked act of aggression against Iran."
"It has no basis or justification," Putin said, according to Kremlin newswire Tass.
Putin made the comments during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, adding that Russia was "making efforts to provide assistance to the Iranian people."
Well, Trump's new nickname sounds like even Russia should fear him after the B-2 bombings in Iranian soil. 
Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, that he and President Donald Trump discussed potential defense cooperation during a meeting at the NATO Summit, including the joint production of drones with American companies and the purchase of U.S. air defense systems.
"We can strengthen each other," Zelensky wrote, emphasizing the strategic value of closer military ties. He also noted that he briefed Trump on the current realities of the war in Ukraine.
"I presented him with what is really happening on the ground," Zelensky said, adding: "Putin is definitely not winning."
Why It Matters
The meeting between Trump and Zelensky marked their first in-person conversation since April, when they met briefly at St. Peter's Basilica during Pope Francis' funeral. The two also had a high-profile confrontation earlier this year at the White House.
What To Know
NATO members have agreed to significantly increase their defense spending, setting a new target of 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually by 2035. The funds will be directed toward core defense needs as well as broader defense- and security-related expenditures—more than doubling the previous benchmark of 2 percent of GDP.
At a press conference concluding the summit, President Trump praised the decision, linking it to broader geopolitical stability.
Trump also reiterated his belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking a way out of the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia's invasion in February 2022.
"He'd like to get out of this thing. It's a mess for him," Trump said. "He called the other day, and he said, 'Can I help you with Iran?' I said, 'No, you can help me with Russia.'"
In a social media post, Zelenskyy described their discussions in The Hague as productive and meaningful, and he expressed gratitude for continued U.S. support.
What People Are Saying
Trump said, following his meeting with Zelensky, "Europe stepping up to take more responsibility for security will help prevent future disasters like the horrible situation with Russia and Ukraine. And hopefully we're going to get that solved."
Asked by a Ukrainian reporter, who said that her husband was a Ukrainian soldier, Trump acknowledged that sending more Patriots would help the Ukrainian cause, "They do want to have the antimissile missiles, OK, as they call them, the Patriots. And we're going to see if we can make some available. We need them, too. We're supplying them to Israel, and they're very effective, 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective. They do want that more than any other thing."
Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's appointment of Robert "Madyar" Brovdi as Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces has formalized the frontline role of one of the country's most prolific drone warfighters.
Brovdi, who led the elite aerial reconnaissance unit "Birds of the Madyar," was tapped for the top drone command in late May, replacing Vadym Sukharevskyi. Known for his aggressive style, Brovdi's unit had already gained national attention for pioneering Ukraine's FPV (First-Person-View) drone assaults against entrenched Russian positions.
But Brovdi's fight isn't limited to countering Russian forces—he's also targeting the morale of their recruits, using viral battlefield footage to wage a psychological war.
Why It Matters
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have evolved from supplemental tools into essential weapons in the Ukraine-Russia war, redefining modern combat on both strategic and tactical levels. Initially used for reconnaissance, drones now execute precision strikes, destroy armored vehicles, and provide real-time battlefield intelligence.
Ukraine's defense ministry says drone strikes are now responsible for up to 80 percent of Russian battlefield casualties. In May alone, Ukrainian drones destroyed over 89,000 Russian targets, according to Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
What To Know
The promotion of 49-year-old Robert Brovdi, known by his call sign "Madyar," formalized what many in Kyiv and beyond had already recognized: drone warfare is now the backbone of Ukraine's military strategy. His appointment as commander of Ukraine's newly formed Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) underscores the central role drones now play in the country's defense.
General Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told reporters that Brovdi's leadership is already yielding results. "He is an experienced man with vast experience, who went through the war as a volunteer, platoon, company, battalion, regiment, brigade commander, and now he is the commander of this new kind of troops," Syrskyi said, according to Censor.NET.
Quote:Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian vessel, part of its Black Sea Fleet, Kyiv said.
A video published by Ukraine's Ministry of Defense shows the moment the vessel was struck while moving along the western coast of the Kherson region.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian government for comment by email.
Why It Matters
The loss claimed by Kyiv marks the latest blow served to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which has been targeted throughout President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Successful Ukrainian drone and cruise missile strikes on the vessels have resulted in Russia relocating some of its prized Black Sea Fleet from its port in annexed Crimea to avoid further losses.
What To Know
The vessel was transporting landing troops when it was struck by Ukrainian forces.
"Another russian Black Sea Fleet boat with enemy troops onboard — destroyed while moving along the western coast of Kherson region," Ukraine's defense ministry announced on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
The Defense Ministry shared a video of the attack, which was filmed by the Ukrainian Navy.
The 25-second aerial clip, shot at night, purportedly shows the moment the Black Sea Fleet vessel was struck, causing a huge blaze to erupt on board. Smoke can be seen billowing from the boat immediately after the strike.
The Ukrainian Navy also said on X: "Naval forces destroyed 20 'Shaheds' and 1 Russian Black Sea Fleet boat Last night, using the forces and means of the Ukrainian Navy, 20 enemy kamikaze drones 'SHAHED-136' were shot down and 1 Russian Black Sea Fleet boat was destroyed."
According to Euromaidan Press, an independent English-language news website launched in 2014 by volunteers from Ukraine, the latest destroyed vessel marks the 28th Russian ship or boat taken out by Ukraine since the start of Putin's full-scale invasion, including Russia's flagship cruiser Moskva.
The Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, was destroyed by Ukraine in the early days of the war, dealing an embarrassing blow to Putin.
Russia is now racing to build a vessel that dwarfs the Moskva, according to Ukrainian military publication Defense Express, which published satellite images in April showing the progress Russia is making on one of its two Project 23900 Ivan Rogov-class amphibious assault ships. These vessels are reportedly capable of carrying up to 90 pieces of military equipment, including 15 helicopters.
The Ivan Rogov-class vessel currently under construction is reportedly much larger, suggesting that Moscow aims to restore its naval credibility amid a string of losses suffered by the Black Sea Fleet during the war.
Quote:NATO members committed Wednesday to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035, heeding President Donald Trump’s calls for the transatlantic military alliance to take more steps to bolster its security.
Ukraine’s former Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Fox News Digital the move is a big, immediate win for Trump and would be a significant win for Europe’s future if it takes the increase in defense spending seriously and begins to deliver on the commitment.
"This is a serious lesson that Europe will have to learn. Not only investing, but also spending. Spending in a way that will allow them to show to the public that they're making a good investment in their security and their economies and to send a message to their enemy: do not dare to attack us because we are ready, we are prepared to strike back," he said.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox News Digital, Kuleba bluntly assessed the state of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, arguing the current diplomatic process is "dead."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated attacks on Ukraine in recent months, targeting Kyiv with large-scale missile and drone attacks.
The Russian strongman has refused to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by the United States and its European allies earlier this year.
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in mid-June, Putin said he considers the Russian and Ukrainian peoples to be one. "In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours," he told attendees to applause.
Trump has held off on imposing additional sanctions on Moscow, preferring to wait and see if his diplomatic efforts will bear fruit.
"Putin does not feel any pressure. And therefore, he does not really get why he should change his behavior," said Kuleba. "I'm afraid diplomacy has zero chance to succeed at this stage under these circumstances, which means that there will be more killings and more destruction."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Putin’s goals remain clear: "He wants all of Ukraine."
Zelenskyy attended the G7 summit in Canada last week, meeting with world leaders and securing nearly $2 billion in aid from Prime Minister Mark Carney. His meeting with Trump was canceled after the U.S. president left Kananaskis early, citing escalating tensions in the Middle East due to the Israel-Iran conflict.
ISRAEL
Quote:President Donald Trump has demanded that Israel drop its legal case against its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The Israeli leader, who has denied all allegations, is due to return to court on Monday.
On Wednesday, Trump said he was "shocked" to hear that Israel was continuing its trial of Netanyahu, which he branded "politically motivated" and a "Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister."
What To Know
The legal proceedings against Netanyahu began back in 2020 and since then, more than 100 witnesses, including some of his closest former allies, have testified.
Prosecutors say he traded regulatory favors with media executives for positive coverage and accepted expensive gifts from a billionaire.
He is the first sitting Israeli leader to testify as a criminal defendant. He is also, separately, facing an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.
In his Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump called for Netanyahu's trial to "be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State."
Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that U.S. officials plan to meet with Iran next week as the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran continues to hold.
Iran has denied talks are scheduled and has reaffirmed its commitment to its nuclear program.
Quote:Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he was "deeply moved" by U.S. President Donald Trump's support after Trump demanded that Israel drop its ongoing legal case against its prime minister.
Why It Matters
Israel and the United States share a close relationship, with the U.S. providing the country with billions in military aid and significant diplomatic support. Last weekend, the relationship went further with Trump ordering the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran, nearly two weeks after Israel had begun strikes on the country.
A fickle ceasefire between Iran and Israel is in place currently, though there are mounting concerns over its longevity.
Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The longtime Israeli leader, who has denied all allegations, is due to return to court on Monday. Separately, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza amid Israel's war with Hamas.
...
Netanyahu thanked Trump on X, writing, "I was deeply moved by your heartfelt support for me and your incredible support for Israel and the Jewish people."
He continued, "I look forward to continue working with you to defeat our common enemies, liberate our hostages and quickly expand the circle of peace."
The legal proceedings against Netanyahu began in 2020, and since then, more than 100 witnesses, including some of his closest former allies, have testified. Prosecutors say he traded regulatory favors with media executives for positive coverage and accepted expensive gifts from a billionaire.
Netanyahu is the first sitting Israeli leader to testify as a defendant in a criminal case. He is also the longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history, having served a total of 17 years across three terms.
His policies and politics have been divisive in recent years, with many Israelis protesting some of the war tactics used in Gaza, including choking aid points, limiting resources, and killing civilians. Others have supported his ground and air campaigns in securing Israel from Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the U.S.
USA
Quote:The U.S. and China have signed an agreement on trade, President Donald Trump said, adding he expects to soon have a deal with India.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed earlier this week. Neither Lutnick nor Trump provided any details about the agreement.
"We just signed with China the other day," Trump said late Thursday.
Lutnick said the deal was "signed and sealed" two days earlier.
It follows initial talks in Geneva in early May that led both sides to postpone massive tariff hikes that were threatening to freeze much trade between the two countries. Later talks in London set a framework for negotiations and the deal mentioned by Trump appeared to formalize that agreement.
"The president likes to close these deals himself. He's the dealmaker. We're going to have deal after deal," Lutnick said.
China has not announced any new agreements, but it announced earlier this week that it was speeding up approvals of exports of rare earths, materials used in high-tech products such as electric vehicles. Beijing's limits on exports of rare earths have been a key point of contention.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday that Beijing was accelerating review of export license applications for rare earths and had approved "a certain number of compliant applications."
Export controls of the minerals apparently eclipsed tariffs in the latest round of trade negotiations between Beijing and Washington after China imposed permitting requirements on seven rare earth elements in April, threatening to disrupt production of cars, robots, wind turbines and other high-tech products in the U.S. and around the world.
The agreement struck in May in Geneva called for both sides to scale back punitive tariff hikes imposed as Trump escalated his trade war and sharply raised import duties. Some higher tariffs, such as those imposed by Washington related to the trade in fentanyl and duties on aluminum and steel, remain in place.
The rapidly shifting policies are taking a toll on both of the world's two largest economies.
The U.S. economy contracted at a 0.5% annual pace from January through March, partly because imports surged as companies and households rushed to buy foreign goods before Trump could impose tariffs on them.
Quote:Suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be deported after he’s released from jail in Tennessee, but not to his native El Salvador, according to a federal prosecutor.
The Trump administration plans to initiate removal proceedings against Abrego Garcia that would expel him to a “third country,” Justice Department lawyer Jonathan Guynn told a Maryland federal judge on Thursday.
Guynn noted that the Trump administration will comply with all court orders and that there are “no imminent plans” to deport the Salvadoran national, who entered the US illegally in 2011.
“We do plan to comply with the orders we’ve received from this court and other courts,” he said. “But there’s no timeline for these specific proceedings.”
It’s unclear which country the Trump administration would seek to deport the so-called “Maryland Man” to.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could resume deporting migrants to countries other than their home nation with limited notice.
The ruling came after the Trump administration had planned to deport several foreign nationals to war-torn Libya and South Sudan but was blocked by a lower court.
Guynn essentially confirmed Trump administration officials’ vows that Abrego Garcia “will never go free on American soil.”
A DOJ spokesman, however, indicated the department intends to try Abrego Garcia before he’s deported.
“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,” DOJ spokesman Chad Gilmartin said in a statement after Guynn explained the Trump administration’s plans for Abrego Garcia.
The DOJ had argued in court filings seeking to block Abrego Garcia’s release from a Nashville jail that part of the reason he should remain behind bars is because it would ensure he is not deported before he stands trial.
White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson described a report on Guynn’s comments to the judge as “fake news.”
“Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him,” Jackson wrote on X. “He will face the full force of the American justice system – including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed.”
A Tennessee judge on Sunday ruled that Abrego Garcia must be freed from jail as he awaits trial on human smuggling charges – and a Trump administration effort to overturn the order was denied on Wednesday.
I hope the judge clearly specified WHEN exactly illegal aliens should not be deported to their home nations because picking their countries of origin as their next destination is the standard procedure in MANY COUNTRIES around the world.
Leaving any clear limitations to his own ruling out of it would be totally irresponsible. Besides, it's not clear why Abrego could not return to El Salvador. He's not connected to any guerrilla or terrorist group or ethnic minority, the guy's just a dangerous Salvadoran gangster. 
Quote:A heroic officer dashed into a burning hotel room just after an explosive device detonated in Kentucky and averted a potential catastrophe, police said.
The officer, Yeng Xiong, may have prevented more explosions by running into the room with a fire extinguisher and putting out a blaze caused by an unknown device that detonated last Friday, police said.
Louisville Metro Bomb Squad investigators found two other explosive devices during a sweep of the room, according to police.
The chaotic scene, which was captured on body cam footage from Lyndon Police Chief Robert Schroder, shows officers trying to talk to the suspect, Leonard Pitchford, 37, behind his hotel door.
Pitchford refused to come out and nobody could gain access to the room since he had lashed shut with electrical wire wrapped around the hinge lock, police said.
Schroeder said officers were called to the Springhill Suites hotel about 10 miles east of downtown Louisville to help hotel staff convince Pitchford to leave his room just before 12:20 p.m., according to WHAS 11.
The body cam footage shows a hotel employee finally able to get the door open, but as he does an explosion goes off followed by Pitchford’s hysterical screams and the disorienting sound of the hotel’s fire alarm.
Schroder notices the fire and goes sprinting down the hallway screaming: “Fire extinguisher! Fire extinguisher!”
All the while hotel staff are frantically trying to evacuate the floor.
A staff member runs towards Schroder and hands him the extinguisher.
Meanwhile, Pitchford screams in agony and shouts that he can’t breathe.
Xiong takes the extinguisher from his chief and doesn’t hesitate as he runs into the room to put the fire out.
“I peeked around the side, saw a fire burning inside the room, ran down the hallway, and got a fire extinguisher from a staff member,” Chief Schroeder said. “Officer Yeng Xiong took the fire extinguisher, entered the room heroically, and put the fire out.”
“I can’t speak enough about the bravery of Officer Xiong going in there because, as the investigation turned out, there were additional devices in there,” the chief added.
An ATF bomb dog led investigators to Pitchford’s car in the hotel parking lot, authorities told WHAS 11.
Pitchford is charged with 43 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment and one count of use of a weapon of mass destruction, according to reports.
“I do know that the subject has had extensive contact with the Middletown Police Department, so, in my mind as chief of police, there is a significant danger to the community if he’s released,” Schroeder told WHAS 11.
Quote:Squatters have been wreaking havoc in parts of Los Angeles, setting fires and even carrying out a random attack in a troubling rash of violence that has left residents frightened.
The chaos first cropped up in Beverly Grove after an abandoned apartment complex was recently taken over by a group of vagrants.
“It’s been absolutely terrifying. We are on hold with our lives right now until this is resolved,” Anita Cavallo, a woman who lives in the Beverly Grove area, told ABC7.
On Thursday, a transient jumped a gardener working outside at a gated home in nearby Brentwood, one of the wealthiest parts of Los Angeles.
The shirtless suspect randomly approached the gardener and knocked him in the head with some kind of pole, according to Ring camera footage obtained by ABC7.
The gardener fell to the ground and held his hands up to try and defend himself as the madman continued to wail on him, the video shows.
The gardener sustained a nasty gash to the side of his head, bleeding profusely and staining his shirt red.
Back in Beverly Grove, one of the squatters who took over the apartment complex has repeatedly set their homeless haven on fire, forcing locals to extinguish the flames themselves.
The property owner of the abandoned complex claims to be in the process of demolishing and rebuilding the building, but fed-up residents feel their calls to local officials to clear out the transients fall on deaf ears.
“It feels like no one has proper answers for us. Everyone just blames someone else and tells us nothing they can do, so we don’t know where to go anymore for help,” Cavallo told the outlet.
Neighbors have estimated that around 20 vagrants claimed the vacant building.
Quote:Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asked Republicans in Congress on Thursday to remove the so-called “revenge tax” from President Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill.
The provision would grant Trump the authority to tax foreign holdings of US investments as a way to retaliate against countries imposing new taxes on US companies operating overseas.
Bessent argued that the provision, known as Section 899, was no longer necessary after the Trump administration reached a deal with G7 nations at last week’s summit to exempt US companies from a 15% global corporate minimum tax championed by the Biden administration.
“After months of productive dialogue with other countries on the OECD Global Tax Deal, we will announce a joint understanding among G7 countries that defends American interests,” the Treasury secretary wrote on X. “President Trump paved the way for this historic achievement.”
“OECD Pillar 2 taxes will not apply to U.S. companies, and we will work cooperatively to implement this agreement across the OECD-G20 Inclusive Framework in coming weeks and months,” Bessent added. “I want to thank my G7 counterparts for their partnership and collaboration towards achieving this historic outcome.”
“Based on this progress and understanding, I have asked the Senate and House to remove the Section 899 protective measure from consideration in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The massive piece of legislation is currently working its way through the Senate.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said the revenge tax provision would be stricken from the bill.
“At the request of @SecScottBessent and in light of this joint understanding to preserve US tax sovereignty and allow US tax laws to co-exist with the Pillar 2 regime, we will remove proposed tax code Section 899 from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and we look forward to active engagement with Treasury on these important issues,” Crapo wrote on X.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) called the deal a “major victory for American workers.”
Some on Wall Street feared that the provision would discourage global investment in the US.
The Senate’s version of the revenge tax had been projected to raise more than $50 billion in revenues over 10 years, which would’ve helped defray the cost of other spending in the bill.
Trump has urged Congress to pass the bill by July 4.
Quote:A crazed Texas gunman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for randomly shooting a Texas Christian University student three times, including once in the back of the head, as the victim’s father slammed the killer’s “dark and ugly soul.”
Matthew Purdy pleaded guilty on Thursday to fatally shooting 21-year-old Wes Smith outside “Your Mom’s House” bar in the West 7th District of Fort Worth, Texas, just after 1 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2023.
Smith, a walk-on at the private D1 FBS school during the 2021 season, was getting his friend into a car to go home when Purdy approached him, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office said.
Purdy, who was 21 at the time of the shooting, approached Smith to ask if he knew who his father was before pulling out a gun and shooting the TCU student, WFAA reported, citing a police affidavit.
The junior finance major was struck twice by the crazed gunman’s bullets, once in the stomach and another in the shoulder, before collapsing to the ground.
Purdy shot Smith a third time in the back of the head as the student lay on the sidewalk to make sure he was dead, the gunman told police, according to the outlet.
During the chaos, Purdy pistol-whipped an 18-year-old woman attempting to flee the area.
Purdy was arrested by police two blocks from the shooting scene.
Purdy, now 23, told investigators he physically attacked the unidentified teen woman and would’ve shot more people, but he had run out of ammo, according to KXAS-TV.
He was expected to stand trial in July. His defense team had filed for an insanity defense, claiming Purdy suffered from schizophrenia and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the local station reported.
His attorneys also claimed Purdy’s mother had a history of mental health illnesses and abused drugs and alcohol during the pregnancy.
Quote:Don’t let the dog hit you on the way out!
An Egyptian man trying to smuggle over 100 pounds of food through Dulles Airport punted a CBP beagle into the air when the pup sniffed out the scam, resulting in the creep’s deportation, the agency announced.
Customs and Border Protection Brigader Beagle Freddie, 5, caught the whiff of something suspicious coming from the luggage of Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, 70, who arrived at the Washington, DC, airport from Cairo on Tuesday, CBP said in a release.
As the detector dog alerted his handlers to Marie’s bags, the 70-year-old violently kicked Freddie with enough power to lift the 25-pound beagle into the air, the release stated.
CBP officers then took Marie down, placed him in custody, and turned him over to Homeland Security officials.
While inspecting the dog-kicker’s luggage, CBP officers found enough undeclared sundries to start a restaurant including 55 pounds of beef, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of eggplant, two pounds of corn seeds, cucumbers, bell peppers, and one pound of herbs.
“Being caught deliberately smuggling well over one hundred pounds of undeclared prohibited agriculture products does not give one permission to violently assault a defenseless Customs and Border Protection beagle,” Christine Waugh, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Washington, D.C., said in the release.
Marie pleaded guilty to harming animals used in law enforcement, a federal crime, during an appearance in US District Court and was sent packing on a flight back to Egypt at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, CBP stated.
The K-9 hater was also ordered to pay for the beagle’s veterinarian fees.
Freddie suffered a contusion to his forward right rib area and is expected to make a full recovery.
At the end the
dog is an active 
cop, right? The guy had to be punished 
for attacking an officer at the airport.Quote:A “serial criminal” and “coward” was arrested in Los Angeles Tuesday for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail at a hotel where more than two dozen Department of Homeland Security agents were staying as violent anti-ICE riots held the city hostage.
Eric Anthony Rodriguez, 39, who hails from California, allegedly hurled a Molotov cocktail at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, where 15 agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and 12 Customs and Border Protection agents were staying, early Saturday, officials told The Post.
The Los Angeles Police Department received a call about an “incendiary device investigation” early Saturday after witnesses said that a male suspect had lit and launched a Molotov cocktail toward the hotel.
The device landed harmlessly in some bushes, and a hotel employee was able to put out the fire, according to Officer David Cuellar, an LAPD spokesman.
No one was injured in the attack.
“This coward threw a Molotov cocktail at a hotel in Los Angeles where 27 DHS law enforcement officers were staying,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release.
A joint investigation between the LAPD’s Major Crimes unit and the Los Angeles Fire Department’s arson investigators zeroed in on Rodriguez, Cuellar said.
He was nabbed Tuesday morning without incident near the scene of the initial attack, Cuellar said.
“Anyone who threatens the lives of federal officers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — and that is exactly what will happen to Rodriguez,” McLaughlin said.
“If you threaten or attempt to harm a law enforcement officer, we will find you.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney charged Rodriguez with one count of possession of a destructive device and one count of arson, Cuellar said.
“Anthony Rodriguez is a serial criminal who will face justice for threatening the lives of federal law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.
Cuomo staying in NYC mayor's race for now, following stunning setback to Mamdani in primary: Sources
Quote:Andrew Cuomo is not dropping out of the race for New York City mayor.
Cuomo, the former three-term New York State governor who resigned from office in 2021 amid multiple scandals, has decided, for now, to move ahead and run in the general election as an independent candidate, two sources confirmed to Fox News on Thursday night.
The announcement by Cuomo came two days after progressive upstart Zohran Mamdani shocked the political world, as he topped Cuomo and the rest of the 11-candidate field in heavily blue New York City's Democratic Party mayoral primary and took a big step toward becoming the first Muslim mayor of the nation's most populous city.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist state assemblyman from Queens who originally hailed from Uganda, captured 43.5% of the first round unofficial primary results, with Cuomo at 36.4%.
While he acknowledged Mamdani's victory in the primary, Cuomo left the door open to a November run as an independent candidate, which election rules in New York State permit.
"I want to look at all the numbers as they come in and analyze the rank choice voting. I will then consult with my colleagues on what is the best path for me to help the City of New York, as I have already qualified to run for mayor on an independent line in November," Cuomo said in a statement earlier this week.
Cuomo was facing an end-of-the-day Friday deadline for candidates who had already qualified to run as independents to decline that independent ballot line.
The former governor will keep his place that he already secured earlier this year on the "Fight & Deliver" ballot line. But the sources said that Cuomo had not committed yet to running an active general election campaign through the summer and into the autumn.
If Cuomo drops out of the race at a later date, his name will stay on the general election ballot.
Quote:Incredible footage captured a massive explosion and fireball at a Montana industrial plant — with the blast rattling homes and cars for miles around, according to reports.
The explosion happened at a saltwater disposal site just outside of Sidney — a small city in northeast Montana — around 8 p.m. Wednesday, lighting up the evening sky with a huge ball of orange flame that billowed into a towering mushroom cloud.
It all apparently started after the facility caught fire sometime Wednesday, with the flames eventually igniting several propane tanks on the property, according to the Sidney Volunteer Fire Department.
Storm chaser Arron Rigsby was driving by when he saw the facility on fire before the explosion, so he pulled over to call for help and dispatched a drone to take a closer look — but got way more than he bargained for.
“All of a sudden, a massive explosion from a propane or oil tank ignited a chain reaction of explosions, sending a shock wave towards town and my vehicle and sent the tank hundreds of feet into the air before crashing back down to earth,” he said in his video.
And the boom was felt as far as 10 miles away, according to officials.
“The fire burned well into the night and with emergency crews on scene, there was nothing to do but to let it burn itself out and keep the spot fires under control,” he explained in his video.
Sidney Volunteer Fire Department soon arrived at the scene and cordoned the area off, establishing a quarantine that was maintained throughout the night.
The department determined the facility was housing multiple propane tanks, and burst when they became heated in the flames.
It remains unclear how the initial fire started.
Remarkably, nobody was hurt in the incident, and the damage was contained to the area around the facility.
Quote:A previously deported Iranian man living in the United States illegally was arrested this week in Texas, federal prosecutors said.
Jamil Bahlouli was found at an Austin home where deportation officers attempted to arrest him as part of a 2020 removal order after he skipped out on an appointment at an immigration office, the Justice Department said.
When authorities found Bahlouli in the doorway of his home, he "refused to be arrested and took an action designed to prevent or hamper his deportation and departure pursuant to the outstanding final order of removal by slamming the door on the deportation officers," court documents state.
He is charged with failure to deport. Bahlouli self-deported to Canada on Oct. 14, 2021 following the removal order.
However, he re-entered the U.S. illegally at some point and was found around Dec. 15, 2023, authorities said.
The 2020 removal order used to deport him the first time was then reinstated, the Justice Department said.
He was charged with illegal re-entry and information with illegal entry, for which he was convicted in Montana on Jan. 5, 2024, according to court documents.
He was sentenced to time served and released into the U.S. Bahlouli was scheduled to report to an ICE office in San Antonio on Jan. 23, 2024 but never showed up, authorities said.
He faces up to four years in prison. ICE is investigating the case.
Quote:The Harvard University scientist accused of smuggling frog embryos into the United States was slapped with additional federal charges Wednesday as she faces the possibility of decades in prison for allegedly failing to disclose the biological materials.
Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova, 30, was indicted by a Boston federal grand jury on one count of concealment of a material fact, one count of smuggling goods into the U.S. and one count of false statement.
Petrova, a scientist studying cancer research at Harvard, was initially charged with smuggling last month and will remain on pretrial release despite the new charges.
The researcher was arrested after she was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston Logan International Airport while returning from a vacation to France in February. Petrova told officers she had picked up a package of superfine sections of frog embryos while on her trip with the intention of using the samples for research.
Petrova was subsequently informed her visa was being canceled, and she was taken into custody by immigration officials in Vermont following her arrest.
Harvard University and an attorney representing Petrova did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
In an April interview with The Associated Press, Petrova insisted she was unaware of her responsibility to declare the items, claiming she did not intend to sneak anything into the country.
However, federal prosecutors allege text messages from Petrova’s phone reveal a colleague informed the scientist she was required to declare the biological materials prior to traveling through TSA, according to the Department of Justice.
Quote:ICE agents arrested a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps member with suspected ties to Hezbollah, an ex Iranian army sniper and a terror watchlist suspect during a sweep of Iranian illegal migrants in the US over the weekend — as authorities raised warnings about possible “sleeper cells.”
In all, 11 Iranian illegal migrants, many of them with criminal records, were taken into custody, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed former IRGC Mehran Makari Sahel, who has “admitted connections” to the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, according to CBS News.
The 56-year-old Iranian citizen is a convicted felon, who was sentenced to 15 months in prison in Minneapolis for possessing a firearm, according to DHS.
The resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, was ordered deported on June 28, 2022, but never left the US.
Yousef Mehridehno, whose name appears on the terrorist watchlist, was arrested by ICE outside Jackson, Mississippi, according to the outlet.
Feds discovered that Mehridehno lied on a visa application after he had already been living in the country illegally for eight years. They also found that he potentially committed marriage fraud, according to DHS.
ICE agents also arrested Ribvar Karmi in northern Alabama on Sunday and found he was carrying an Iranian army ID card that revealed he was a sniper between 2018 and 2021, CBS reported.
Karmi entered the US in October 2024 on a K-1 visa for immigrants who are engaged to American citizens. But he never adjusted his status as required by the visa program, making him an illegal immigrant, according to DHS.
Five of the 11 Iranians swept up by ICE had previous criminal convictions that included grand larceny and drug and firearm possession, according to CBS News.
“Under Secretary Noem, DHS has identified and arrested known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through [President Joe] Biden’s fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,” DHS said in an X post Tuesday.
“We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out — and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland,” DHS said.
Quote:The United States has signed new agreements with Honduras and Guatemala that could allow migrants from other nations to seek refuge there instead of applying for asylum in the U.S., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced at the end of her trip to Central America.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump made it a centerpiece of his new administration to enact the largest deportation in U.S. history. The administration has conducted numerous ICE raids, some of which have swept up people with proper documentation.
Immigration advocacy and human rights groups have launched legal challenges against elements of the administration's policies, including deportations to third countries and the cancellation of some immigrants' legal status.
However, the Supreme Court this week ruled in favor of the administration 6-3 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—for the moment—is allowed to send deported migrants to a third country in which they have no connection, as some nations do not cooperate with the U.S. regarding repatriation.
What To Know
The deal brokered Thursday broadens the Trump administration's strategy of deporting migrants not just to their home countries but to third countries willing to offer them protection.
Noem said the arrangements had been in development for months, with the U.S. pressuring both governments to finalize the terms.
"Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well," Noem said.
"We've never believed that the United States should be the only option... The guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and protected—it doesn't necessarily have to be the United States," she added.
Quote:The Trump administration on Wednesday restricted US banks from making transactions with three Mexican financial firms over concerns that they are laundering money for drug cartels.
The sanctions – the first implemented under the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act – targeted Mexican banks CIBanco and Intercam Banco and the brokerage firm Vector Casa de Bolsa, which have a combined $22 billion in assets, according to the Treasury Department.
“Cartels have exploited Mexico-based financial institutions to move money, enabling the vicious fentanyl supply chain that has poisoned countless Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.
“Through the first use of a new powerful authority granted by Congress, Treasury will effectively require US financial institutions to sever ties with 3 Mexico-based financial institutions for laundering money on behalf of cartels,” Bessent added. ”Both the United States and Mexico are committed to financial systems with strong anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism controls and these actions affirm Treasury’s commitment to using all tools at our disposal to counter the threat posed by terrorist organizations.”
The sanctions were implemented after the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) determined that CIBanco, Intercam and Vector were “moving money on behalf of cartels” and had become “vital cogs in the fentanyl supply chain,” according to Bessent.
FinCen’s investigation found a “long-standing pattern of associations, transactions, and provision of financial services” between CIBanco and Intercam and several Mexican drug trafficking groups, including Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and Gulf Cartel.
Between 2021 and 2024, CIBanco and Intercam processed over $3.6 million in purchases of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China, shipped to Mexico, for “illicit purposes,” according to FinCen.
The financial crimes watchdog further alleged that Intercam executives “met directly with suspected CJNG members” in 2022 “to discuss money laundering schemes, including transferring funds from China,” and that a CIBanco employee “knowingly facilitated the creation of an account to purportedly launder $10 million on behalf of a Gulf Cartel member” in 2023.
Vector’s alleged dealings with drug cartels date back to 2013, according to FinCen, which found a Sinaola Cartel “money mule” laundered at least $2 million from the US to Mexico through the brokerage firm.
In 2021 alone, Vector “remitted over USD 17 million in suspicious wire transfers to multiple China-based companies … on behalf of a company that was reportedly tied to an international drug trafficking organization,” according to FinCen.
Since at least 2019, Vector processed fund transfers to “over 20 China-based companies” that shipped fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexico.
“Based on non-public information, as well as the volume and dollar amount of funds transfers that Vector processed over several years with these companies, FinCEN assesses that such transactions likely facilitated illicit opioid trafficking by Mexico-based [drug trafficking organizations],” the Treasury Department bureau noted.
FinCen also discovered that Vector processed “bribes” paid by the Sinaloa Cartel to a former top Mexican law enforcement official who was convicted of corruption charges in 2023.
The Treasury Department said it aims to deny anyone associated with Mexican drug cartels deemed Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and/or Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the Trump administration “access to the US financial system.”
MEXICO
Of course, Sheinbaum would obviously start complaining about the Trump administration's measures to make it hard to smuggle fentanyl into US via Mexico.
At the end, Mexico has "never" been partially influenced nor controlled by the cartels, right?
At the end, Mexico has "never" been partially influenced nor controlled by the cartels, right?
Quote:Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said, "we're no one's piñata," Thursday, blasting the Trump administration's decision to sanction three Mexican financial institutions over money laundering allegations.
"We aren't going to cover for anyone...but they have to demonstrate that there was actually money laundering—not with words, but with strong evidence," she said during her morning briefing.
"We're no one's piñata," she added. "Mexico must be respected."
Why It Matters
The dispute comes at a time of heightened scrutiny over the role of international financial networks in fueling the U.S. fentanyl crisis. Chinese companies are widely acknowledged as the main source of precursor chemicals for fentanyl production. Mexico, long grappling with powerful drug cartels operating with significant impunity, has become a key transit and production hub.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
