Iran strike like Hiroshima, Trump says as NATO chief calls him ‘daddy’

If you’re just joining us, we are reporting live updates the day after Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Trump has jetted in to the Netherlands for a NATO summit where he has continued his attacks on US media outlets who reported what he described as ‘fake’ coverage of the impact of the United States’ bunker-buster bombing of nuclear sites in Iran.

CNN and The New York Times both reported a leaked intelligence assessment that stated the weekend strikes against key nuclear facilities in the country only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by a couple months.

Here’s what you need to know today:

• Donald Trump has vented his outrage as US media outlets CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times, calling them ‘scum’ over their coverage of a leaked document on the impact of the US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
• During his press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump was repeatedly asked about the leaked memo and admitted the intelligence was ‘inconclusive’ before reiterating the nuclear sites were ‘obliterated’.
• When asked by reporters whether the US would strike again if Iran continued with its nuclear enrichment programme, Trump said: ‘Sure.’
• Turning to the Israel-Iran ceasefire he brokered, Trump said both countries were acting like ‘two kids in the schoolyard’ as he stated he believed the truce would hold as both side had had enough of fighting.
• Israel has said it is still ‘too early’ to assess what damage has been done to Iran’s nuclear programme following the 12-day war.
• Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers have passed a bill to suspend co-operation with the IAEA meaning nuclear inspectors will be banned from visiting facilities in the country.

Trump is a ‘daddy’ who has used ‘strong language’ to stop the warring parties in the Middle East, NATO chief Mark Rutte suggested.

The US president said during a press conference that he believes the ceasefire between Iran and Israel will hold because they have had enough of fighting.

‘They’re not going to be fighting each other, they’ve had it,’ he told reporters.

‘Like two kids in the schoolyard, they fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for two or three minutes then it’s easy to stop them.

Rutte interjected with a laugh: ‘Daddy has to use strong language.’

‘You have to use strong language, every once in a while you have to use a certain word!’ Trump replied, referencing his use of the f-word yesterday.

The UK will buy 12 US-made F-35A fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear bombs, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced today

After he was accused of flip-flopping over the Iran bombing raid, Sir Keir sat alongside Donald Trump for the formal discussions at the NATO summit in the Netherlands,

He insisted the Special Relationship had not been dented from apparent differences over the strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites.

After unveiling a major expansion of its nucelar deterrent, the UK government called it ‘the biggest strengthening of the U.K.’s nuclear posture in a generation.’

Read more here:

The US ‘torpedoed democracy’ after it ‘greenlighted’ Israeli strikes on Iran, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman has said.

In comments published by Al Jazeera, Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran would have to ascertain whether the US is ‘really serious’ about diplomacy before any form of engagement after being asked about Trump’s suggestion that America would have ‘some sort of a relationship’ with his country.

Questioning how any trust could remain between the US and Iran, Baghaei said:

While they [US officials] have been talking about diplomacy, they greenlighted the Israelis to attack Iran. They [the US] torpedoed diplomacy.

US President Donald Trump said that ‘great progress’ was being made to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as a new ceasefire push began more than 20 months since the start of the conflict.

‘I think great progress is being made on Gaza,’ Trump told reporters ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands, adding that his special envoy Steve Witkoff had told him ‘Gaza is very close.’

He linked his optimism about imminent ‘very good news’ for the Gaza Strip to a ceasefire agreed on Tuesday between Israel and Hamas backer Iran to end their 12-day war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested that Israel’s blitz of Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities, as well as its security forces linked to overseas militant groups, could help end the Gaza conflict.

Netanyahu faces growing calls from opposition politicians, relatives of hostages being held in Gaza and even members of his ruling coalition to bring an end to the fighting, triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

Palestinians search for casualties at a fuel station in Gaza

The US strikes on the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran ‘got the job done,’ an Israeli source has told ABC news.

‘You don’t have to go down into Fordo to know what happened,’ the source, who reportedly has knowledge of the Israeli intelligence assessment, said.

They added that if Israel was not satisfied with the results of the US strikes then they ‘would have bombed Fordow again,’ which they did not.

But another source who spoke to the outlet said the damage was not as extensive as it might seem, reportedly saying that from an Israeli perspective the outcome is ‘really not good’.

Two sources said they did not know how much enriched uranium Iran could have been moved from the sites ahead of the Israeli and US strikes on them.

The number of remaining centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, is also not known.

Establishing this information is expected to take months, one source said, if it is ever ascertained.

Iranian authorities have today announced the gradual easing of internet restrictions following the implementation of a ceasefire with Israel.

Curbs were introduced during the 12-day war amid fears Israeli intelligence was hacking into mobile phones to gain information.

‘The communication network is gradually returning to its previous state,’ said the Revolutionary Guards’ cyber security command in a statement carried by state media.

The country’s communications minister, Sattar Hashemi, said in a post on X:

With the normalisation of conditions, the state of communication access has returned to its previous conditions

Iran’s nuclear facilities were ‘badly damaged’ in US and Israeli strikes during the 12-day war with Israel, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told Al Jazeera English on Wednesday.

‘Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, thats for sure, because it has come under repeated attacks by Israeli and American aggressors,’ Baqaei told the broadcaster.

by Emily Goodin, Senior White House Correspondent

President Donald Trump compared his airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites to the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan that ended World War II.

His strikes also ended a war, he noted, pointing to the Israel and Iran ceasefire.

‘That hit ended the war,’ Trump said.

‘I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war.’

‘If we didn’t take that out, they would have been they’d be fighting right now,’ he added.

Trump didn’t rule out another airstrike if necessary.

When asked whether the US would strike again if Iran built its nuclear enrichment program, he replied: ‘Sure.’

Israeli officials have said they are unaware of any operation inside the Fordow nuclear site after Donald Trump indicated they inspected the facility following US strikes on Sunday.

Speaking at NATO earlier today, Trump suggested Israeli operatives had gone inside Fordow after bunker-busting bombs were dropped on it and reported back it had been obliterated.

Trump said:

It was hit brutally, and it knocked it out. The original word that I use, I guess it got us in trouble, because it’s a strong word. It was obliteration, and you’ll see that, and it’s going to come out.

Israel is doing a report on it – now I understand. And I was told that they said it was total obliteration. You know, they have guys that go in there after, after the hit, and they say it was total obliteration.

But Israeli officials told the Kan public broadcaster that they are unaware of any Israeli activity inside Fordow.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it is still ‘too early’ to assess what damage has been done to Iran’s nuclear programme after the 12-day war.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the US mission to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities was ‘flawless’ as he condemned the reported intelligence leak.

‘Any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise is speculating with other motives,’ he said.

Hegseth said that the intelligence assessment reported on by CNN, The New York Times and others is ‘preliminary’ and ‘low confidence.’

He added that the damage to the nuclear facilities was ‘moderate to severe, and we believe far more likely severe and obliterated.’

‘We’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments, and CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success,’ Hegseth told reporters, adding that he felt there was ‘a political motive here’.

Sir Keir Starmer has declined to comment on reports that US air strikes had only delayed Iran’s nuclear programme, rather than destroyed it.

Asked about US intelligence reports suggesting the strikes had only set Iran back by a few months, the Prime Minister told LBC:

I’m not going to comment on leaked intelligence reports. We’ve long been of the view that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear capability, weaponry, and the US took action that alleviated that threat.

But it is important that we ensure the ceasefire currently in place maintains and creates the space for the discussion, for Iran to come back to the table to negotiate a long-term settlement.

Russia has said that it is too early for anyone to have a realistic picture of damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear facilities by US airstrikes.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about damage assessments offered by President Trump who has suggested that the US attack obliterated Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Peskov said that Moscow viewed the attacks on Iran as unprovoked and the situation as concerning.

Russia had indications that Washington and Tehran had open communications channels though, and Moscow was closely monitoring developments and still talking to Iran itself, he said.

During his press conference with Mark Rutte, Trump was asked again about the leaked intelligence document reported on by the New York Times and CNN.

The US president initially said ‘the intelligence was very inconclusive’ but also suggested the damage could have been severe.

‘The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says “we don’t know”.

‘It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.

‘It was very severe. There was obliteration,’ he then added.

‘That hit ended the war,’ Trump said, drawing comparisons to the American atomic bombings during World War II, he added: ‘I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war.’

When asked whether the US would strike again if Iran built its nuclear enrichment programme, Trump replied: ‘Sure.’

Trump has again condemned news outlets including CNN and The New York Times, calling them ‘scum’ over their coverage of a leaked document on the impact of the US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

‘CNN is scum, the New York Times is scum, MSNBC is scum,’ he fumed during a presser at the NATO summit.

‘They’re bad people, they’re sick. And what they’ve done is they want to turn this incredible victory into something less,’ he went on.

The intelligence assessment reportedly stated the weekend strikes, while powerful, only managed to set back Iran’s nuclear programme by a couple months.

‘Even they admit that it was hit hard. But it wasn’t hit hard, it was hit brutally and it knocked them out,’ Trump said.

President Trump said he thinks the Israel-Iran ceasefire is going ‘very good’.

He told reporters at the NATO summit that after he told Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down a planned strike on Iran, the Israeli prime minister ordered air force planes to turn around.

‘Israel came back yesterday and I was very proud of them… it just wouldn’t have worked out very well.’

Israel staged a small ‘symbolic strike’ north of Tehran yesterday, shortly after it said it would ‘respond forcefully’ to a breach of the ceasefire.

Mark Rutte congratulated Trump on his success in halting the conflict between Israel and Iran.

‘I just want to recognise your decisive action on Iran.

‘You are a man of strength but also a man of peace, and the fact you are also successful in getting this ceasefire done between Israel and Iran, I really want to commend you on that. I think it is important for the whole world.’

President Trump thanked him for his words.

Pope Leo XIV has called on Israel and Iran not to ‘pursue vengeance’ after 12 days of war between the arch foes was halted by a ceasefire yesterday.

The pontiff used his weekly general audience to call for dialogue between the two sides.

Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social as he prepares to attend meetings at the NATO summit in The Hague today.

The US President has met with the King and Queen of the Netherlands already today after attending a dinner with them and alliance leaders last night.

Trump poses with Netherland’s King Willem Alexander and Netherland’s Queen Maxima this morning.

NATO leaders join King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima for a family photo last night.

Video from on board Air Force One shows President Trump saying all three nuclear sites in Iran were hit ‘perfectly’ and destroyed, as he denied reports of an intelligence leak which suggests otherwise.

He went on to say that media reports about the leaked document – which claim that strikes only set Iran’s nuclear programme back by a couple months – are ‘very disrespectful’ to those who carried out the strikes.

Israel has said it is still ‘too early’ to assess what damage has been done to Iran’s nuclear programme after the 12-day war.

Donald Trump said US strikes on Iranian facilities had ‘obliterated’ their capabilities – claims a leaked intelligence report have since brought into question.

Now the Israeli military, which also carried out strikes on the Natanz plant, other sites and nuclear scientists, has said that while it achieved its objectives in its attack, the exact outcome is yet to be determined.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a statement:

We met all the objectives of the operation as defined for us, even better than we thought. But it is still too early to determine, we are investigating the results of the strikes on the different sections of the nuclear program.

The assessment is that we significantly damaged the nuclear program, and I can say we set it back by years.

Last night, the IDF’s chief of staff Lt. General Eyal Zamir also said:

We have set Iran’s nuclear project back by years, and the same goes for its missile program.

Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, has condemned an intelligence leak which reportedly showed that the US bombing raid failed to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s nuclear programme.

‘Leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous. It’s treasonous,’ he told Fox News.

‘So it ought to be investigated and whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it should be held accountable. It could hurt lives in the future, this leaking is a completely unacceptable thing.’

Witkoff, like Trump, appeared to attack media outlets sharing details of the report when he went on to say: ‘The reporting out there that in some ways suggests that we did not achieve the objective is just completely preposterous.’

He also called the idea that Iran would be able to reach a nuclear weapon within months ‘not even conceivable’.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted Iran is ‘much further away’ from developing a nuclear weapon as a result of American strikes on three facilities over the weekend.

Speaking to Politico, Rubio said:

The bottom line is, they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action.

Significant, very significant, substantial damage was done to a variety of different components, and we’re just learning more about it.

His remarks come after an intelligence assessment leaked to CNN and The New York Times stated the American strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by a couple months.

The reports have angered Donald Trump who accused the outlets of teaming up to ‘demean’ what he described as ‘one of the most successful military strikes in history’.

Iran is set to hold state funerals for senior military commanders and top scientists killed during the country’s 12-day war with Israel this Saturday, state media reports.

‘The national funeral ceremony for… commanders and scientists martyred in the Zionist regime’s aggression will be held on Saturday from 8.00 am (0430 GMT)’ in Tehran, official news agency IRNA reports today.

The outlet also reported that Hossein Salami, the Revolutionary Guards chief killed by Israel on the war’s first day on June 13, will be buried on Thursday.

The announcement comes after the US-proposedceasefire came into effect yesterday.

Israel said its sweeping assault on Tehran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent remove the ‘immediate threat’ it says is posed by the Islamic Republic.

It said its mission was successful and that it would respect a ceasefire if Iran does.

Iran’s parliament has reportedly passed a bill to suspend co-operation with the IAEA meaning UN agents will be restricted from entering the country to carry out nuclear inspections.

According to reports this morning, a resolution was reached which states IAEA agents do not have the right to visit Iran’s nuclear facilities unless there are guarantees around their security.

The bill is said to be subject to approval from the Supreme National Security Council.

It comes after Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sent a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposing they meet.

Mr Grossi said IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran and are ready to start working again.

Read the full story by MailOnline’s Chief Foreign Reporter David Averre here:

Iran has arrested 700 people accused of having ties with Israel during the 12 day conflict between the two countries, state-affiliated media reports.

Tehran has also executed a number of people accused of working for the Mossad spy agency.

The Mizan news agency reported that three men accused of spying for Israel had been hanged.

The group were also convicted of trying to smuggle equipment into the country to ‘carry out assassinations’, it reported.

The former Fox News host insulted his former employer over their coverage of the Israel-Iran war.

Iranian authorities have arrested 700 people accused of being ‘mercenaries of Israel,’ reported state-affiliated Fars News Agency.

According to CNN, the report stated, ‘The mercenaries, who mainly operated in the framework of espionage and sabotage networks, were identified and arrested based on public reports and intelligence operations.’

Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, acknowledged the role of its undercover personnel working in Iran since it started launching airstrikes at the Islamic Republic on June 13.

Oil prices climbed on Wednesday as investors assessed the stability of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Brent crude futures rose 85 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $67.99 a barrel at 0341 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 87 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $65.24.

Brent settled on Tuesday at its lowest since June 10 and WTI since June 5, both before Israel launched a surprise attack on key Iranian military and nuclear facilities on June 13.

Prices had rallied to five-month highs after the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.

‘Global energy prices are moderating following the Israel-Iran ceasefire. The base case for our oil strategists remains anchored by fundamentals, which indicate sufficient global oil supply,’ said JP Morgan analysts in a client note viewed by Reuters.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, sent a letter to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi proposing they meet.

‘Resuming cooperation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities,’ Grossi said in a statement.

‘I’ve written to Foreign Minister Araghchi stressing the importance of us working together and proposing to meet soon.’

He said IAEA inspectors have remained in Iran and are ready to start working again.

‘As I have repeatedly stated – before and during the conflict – nuclear facilities should never be attacked due to the very real risk of a serious radiological accident,’ Grossi said.

The U.S. president appeared to have a chummy interaction as he shook hands with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands upon arriving in The Hague for the country’s first-ever time hosting the NATO summit.

Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the US and Iran are discussing getting back to the negotiation table after strikes on its nuclear facilities.

‘The conversations are promising. We’re hopeful,’ he said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. ‘Now it’s time to sit down with the Iranians and get to a comprehensive peace deal.’

Witkoff bashed a leaked report claiming there was little damage to Iran’s nuclear sites after the US militark launched airstrikes.

‘All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that program, in my view and in many other experts’ views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years,’ he said.

Vice President JD Vance told attendees at the Ohio Republican Party dinner that the US military strikes in Iran were part of a foreign policy he calls ‘the Trump doctrine.’

‘What I call the Trump doctrine is quite simple. Number one, you articulate a clear American interest, and that’s in this case that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,’ he said.

‘Number two, you try to aggressively diplomatically solve that problem. And number three, when you can’t solve it diplomatically, you use overwhelming military power to solve it, and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict.’

Vance said that Trump gave Tehran 60 days to give up its nuclear ambitions before the attack.

Earlier in the day, the Vice President posted on X about the doctrine.

‘We are seeing a foreign policy doctrine develop that will change the country (and the world) for the better: 1) clearly define an American interest; 2) negotiate aggressively to achieve that interest; 3) use overwhelming force if necessary,’ he said.

Donald Trump said ‘fake news CNN’ and ‘the failing New York Times’ teamed up to ‘demean’ his military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

Both outlets reported on a leaked analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency that claims Saturday’s airstrikes only set the country’s program back by months instead of completely destroying it.

‘FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY,’ Trump said on Truth Social.

‘THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED!’

The White House has been on the defense since a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency reported claimed Saturday’s airstrike on three Iranian nuclear sites only set the country’s program back by months instead of completely destroying it.

Sources said the US attack did not destroy Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and that the enriched uranium was moved out of the sites before the strikes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disputed claims that the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was minor.

‘Based on everything we have seen – and I’ve seen it all – our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons,’ he said.

‘Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.’

Andrew Kloster, a general counsel for the Office of Personnel Management, called the strikes on Iran ‘pointless’ and only serving the ‘deep state.’

Pete Hegseth disputed a leaked report claiming that the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was minor.

‘Based on everything we have seen – and I’ve seen it all – our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons,’ he said.

‘Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.’

The White House has been on the defense since a leaked Defense Intelligence Agency reported claimed Saturday’s airstrike on three Iranian nuclear sites only set the country’s program back by months instead of completely destroying it.

Sources said the US attack did not destroy Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and that the enriched uranium was moved out of the sites before the strikes.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘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.

‘Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.’

The FBI is returning agents to counterterrorism who were ordered to focus on immigration cases out of concern over threats from Iran, sources told NBC News.

The assistant director for counterterrorism, Don Holstead, reportedly issued guidance over the weekend reassigning agents.

Sources said the move was related to the possibility of Iran’s retaliation against the US for striking its nuclear facilities.

The FBI neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

‘However, we continuously assess and realign our resources to respond to the most pressing threats to our national security and to ensure the safety of the American people,’ the agency told NBC.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a national terrorism bulletin Sunday warning of possible cyber attacks and violence, including antisemitic hate crimes, following the strikes.

Vice President JD Vance said Donald Trump gave Tehran 60 days to give up its nuclear ambitions while speaking at an Ohio Republican Party dinner event on Tuesday, according to Fox News.

‘You don’t want the worst people in the world to have a nuclear weapon. So what did the President do? For 60 days, he negotiated aggressively to encourage the Iranian regime to give up those weapons peacefully,’ Vance said.

‘And by the way, he was more than willing to accept a peaceful settlement to that problem. But again, this comes back to instincts. When the President realized that there was not going to be a peaceful settlement to that problem, he sent B2 bombers and dropped twelve 30,000-pound bombs on the work facility and destroyed that program.’

The vice president added, ‘Not only did we destroy the Iranian nuclear program, we did it with zero American casualties.’

Donald Trump announced the ‘bilateral ceasefire’ on Monday – less than two weeks after Iran and Israel started exchanging missile strikes and two days after the US blasted the Islamic Republic’s nuclear labs with ‘bunker buster’ bombs.

On June 22, the United States dropped airstrikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities which Donald Trump said were ‘completely and totally obliterated.’

Satellite images show the damage from the strikes at each facility.

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a video of Donald Trump’s foul-mouthed rant, claiming the president ‘doesn’t know what the f**k he’s doing.’

‘And he doesn’t know what the F he’s doing either,’ she said. ‘Mind you, instead of focusing on the war he just uncorked, he spent his morning writing essays about me in his blog.’

Trump ranted on Tuesday that both Israel and Iran violated the ceasefire deal that he announced Monday evening.

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,’ Trump said in the video.

Earlier in the day, Trump fired back at AOC’s impeachment effort, telling her to ‘go ahead and try impeaching me, again,’ adding ‘make my day!’

‘Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the “dumbest” people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before,’ he wrote.

Joe Rogan came to Republican renegade Thomas Massie’s defense as he discussed the MAGA civil war taking place over Donald Trump’s involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict with Bernie Sanders.

The Israeli Air Force said they intercepted two drones heading towards the country’s territory Tuesday evening.

‘The Air Force intercepted two unmanned aerial vehicles earlier this evening that were heading toward the country’s territory, likely from Iran,’ the IAF said.

‘The interceptions were carried out outside the country’s territory. Alerts were activated in open areas in accordance with policy.’

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that his country will respond ‘forcefully’ to any ceasefire violations from Iran.

He thanked Donald Trump for his role in the peace deal and doubled down that Israel ‘struck a severe blow’ to Iran with its attacks, according to CNN.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to make the announcment at the NATO summit on Wednesday.

The president shared a letter written by a Republican lawmaker that nominated him for brokering a delicate end to the war between Iran and Israel.

Trump also reposted a tweet made by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk Monday evening in which Kirk declared that “President Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize.’

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Mariano, told Fox News the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities are now as ‘night and day’ after the United States struck three of its nuclear sites.

‘But it is clear that there is one Iran before June 13 – nuclear Iran – and one now,’ he said. ‘It is night and day.

‘We do not have information of the whereabouts of this material. The way to assert that is to allow the inspection activity to resume as soon as possible, and this would be for the benefit of all.’

Grossi said he ‘wouldn’t argue’ with Vice President JD Vance’s evaluation that if Iran has 60 percent enriched uranium but not the ability to enrich it to 90 percent, they do not have the ability to convert the uranium into a nuclear weapon.

‘I wouldn’t argue with that because 60 percent is not 90 percent,’ Grossi said.

‘My obligation is to account for every gram of uranium that exists in Iran and in any other country.’

House members will receive their classified briefing about the situation in Iran on Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson announced.

‘Senior Administration officials will present the latest information pertaining to the situation involving Israel and Iran,’ Johnson wrote on X.

Democrats were furious when the briefing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was cancelled. Many accused President Donald Trump of bypassing the legislative branch.

‘The unjustified cancelation of this briefing by the Trump Administration is an intolerable insult to their co-equal branch of government and the Constitutional requirement that the President comes to Congress before going to war,’ former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

Senators, meanwhile, will receive their briefing on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared an ‘historic victory’ in the war against Iran and praised President Donald Trump for his help in the matter.

‘Israel has never had a friend like President Trump in the White House,’ he said in an address to the nation.

Netanyahu thanked Trump for ‘his part in defending Israel, and removing the Iranian nuclear threat.’

He echoed Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been destroyed even as new intelligence assessment found that was not the case.

American forces ‘destroyed’ the underground Fordo enrichment site in Iran, the prime minister claimed, adding that ‘we sent Iran’s nuclear program down the drain.’

Israel will strike Iran again if Tehran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Iran’s key nuclear facilities in Arak, Natanz and Isfahan were destroyed by the US in Operation Midnight Hammer, officials say.

Netanyahu says Isareal also ‘obliterated the underground enrichment site in Fordow’.

The prime minister issued a stark warning today: ‘We have dismantled the Iranian nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran thinks of rebuilding it — we will strike again.’

He added that Israel has ‘no intention of easing off the gas pedal’ and will now be directing its efforts towards Hamas.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Tuesday afternoon’s planned intelligence briefing for House lawmakers has been postponed.

‘There’s a lot going on right now,’ Johnson shared.

‘And I’m sure the situation room in the White House is a flurry of activity.’

Johnson said he is planning on having Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio brief lawmakers at the upcoming session.

Hegseth is with the president in Europe for meetings with NATO.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may visit Washington in wake of the operation in Iran, the pro-Netanyahu state television Channel 14 reports.

The White House has not confirmed any news of such plans.

Netanyahu met with Trump in the Oval Office in April this year where the pair discussed Iran, Syria, Israel’s war on Gaza and the hostages being held by Hamas, as well as trade.

A poll taken in the immediate aftermath of Donald Trump’s decision to unleash ‘bunker buster’ bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities reveals how Americans feel about the attack.

The poll numbers reveal the potential risks of an ongoing conflict – although Trump dramatically announced a ceasefire Monday night.

He also told reporters Tuesday that it was holding after dressing down Israel and calling for the US ally to have its planes ‘turn around and head home.’

President Donald Trump’s airstrike on three nuclear sites in Iran only set the country’s programme back by months instead of completely destroying it, according to a leaked report.

An early American intelligence assessment found ‘that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,’ a source who saw it told CNN.

The sources said the US attack did not destroy Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and that the enriched uranium was moved out of the sites before the strikes.

Satellite photos taken on June 19 – just four days before the US airstrike – showed trucks positioned near the entrance of Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.

Trump claimed the strikes’ completely and totally obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.

But the assessment done by the Defense Intelligence Agency found Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed, and the centrifuges are largely ‘intact.’

The White House slammed the 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,’ press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the network in a statement.

‘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. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.’

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

The State Department is monitoring changes in the Middle East over the last week that could impact the Israel war with Hamas.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s press secretary Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday thay ‘everything has changed’ in the Middle East.

‘In the last few days in the Middle East, everything has changed,’ Bruce said. ‘How that manifests in the Gaza Strip is yet to be determined.’

She said there might be more updates on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas terrorists operating out of Gaza at Thursday’s briefing.

After the US carried out strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to expect further American offensive military action, a senior White House official said.

Trump told Netanyahu that it was time to stop the war and return to diplomatic negotiations following the bombardment on three key Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump’s position is that the US had removed any imminent threat posed by Iran, according to the official, who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment publicly about the sensitive diplomatic talks.

The source claimed Netanyahu understood Trump’s stance that the US had no desire to be further involved with the situation militarily.

Israel will ‘respect the ceasefire’ with Iran ‘as long as the other side does’, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has claimed.

He spoke with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth this afternoon and thanked him for President Trump’s ‘bold decision to act with Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat’.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today held off on a tougher strike against Iran after having spoken to Trump.

Israel has ended its state if emergency amid the ceasefire with Iran.

All restrictions on schools, public gatherings and workplaces have now been lifted, the country announced.

In some communities along the border with Gaza, gatherings remain limited to 2,000 people. This restriction was in place before the war with Iran broke out.

Five Red Cross workers were killed in Israeli strikes on Iran, the agency has claimed.

The Red Cross, branding the fatalities as ‘devastating’, issued an urgent call for protections for humanitarian aid workers.

In a statement shared on Facebook, the Red Cross said:

Another rescuer from the Iranian Red Crescent has been killed while saving lives. This brings to five the number of Iranian Red Crescent staff who have tragically lost their lives in the line of duty since the escalation of hostilities. We reiterate urgently our call: Humanitarian workers must be protected.

By Jon Michael Raasch, US Political Reporter

Texas Democrat Rep. Al Green, who for months has vowed to impeach the president, filed articles of impeachment against the president Tuesday morning.

Since screaming and waving his cane to interrupt Trump’s joint speech to Congress in March, Green has worked to get the Republican officially impeached for a third time.

The Democrat announced in the morning that he filed a privileged resolution, meaning it had to be voted on quickly.

The articles accused Trump of abusing his presidential powers and devolving the US into an ‘authoritarian government, usurping congressional power to declare war.’

However, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Democrat’s whirlwind effort was an abysmal failure.

President Donald Trump says China can continue to purchase oil from Iran after the US bombed Tehrfn’s nuclear facilities.

He also hoped that China would also buy ‘plenty’ of oil from the United States.

Trump, in a post on his platform Truth Social, said today:

China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the US, also.

Trump in January said he was re-imposing maximum pressure on Iran over its nuclear program and funding of militant groups across the Middle East.

He imposed waves of Iran-related sanctions including on several of China’s so-called independent ‘teapot’ refineries and port terminal operators for purchases of Iranian oil.

Actual lifting of the sanctions on Iranian oil will take actions by the Treasury and State Departments and Congress. But the Trump administration could choose to not enforce existing sanctions, which could increase the flow of oil to global markets.

China, the world’s biggest buyer of Iranian oil, has long opposed what it has called Washington’s ‘abuse of illegal unilateral sanctions.’

President Donald Trump arrived earlier today in the Netherlands for the NATO Summit.

As he prepared to step off Air Force One, the president whipped out a very patriotic hat.

Israel was ‘stunned’ and ’embarrassed’ by President Trump’s response to Israel and Iran’s tit-for-tat attacks this morning.

Trump scolded both sides for early violations of the ceasefire he had brokered, but directed especially stinging criticism at Washington’s close ally Israel over the scale of its strikes, telling it to ‘calm down now’.

A source close to Israeli leadership told NBC News: ‘They were surprised that he went and did all that in such a public way and basically switched on them very quickly.

‘They just ended this war on a high and then this is kind of a little … nick.’

Pictured: Emergency responders work at a building where four people were killed by an Iranian missile strike on June 24, 2025 in Beersheba, Israel

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Iran and Israel to respect the ceasefire that went into effect Tuesday after 12 days of war.

‘The fighting must stop. The people of the two countries have already suffered too much,’ Guterres said on X.

He added that he hoped the truce could be replicated in other conflicts in the region, such as the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Rep. Thomas Massie pulled his House resolution to check President Donald Trump’s war powers after the president announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

Massie’s resolution had sparked support from Congressional Democrats looking to score political points against the president.

The stunning U-turn has drawn praise from Trump’s deputy chief of staff James Blair.

Iranian army sniper Ribvar Karimi and two suspected terrorists are among illegal migrants living in the US who have been arrested by ICE since Sunday.

Karimi reportedly served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021.

His American wife insists he loves America and is a proud immigrant.

French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed concerns that the Israel-Iran war has increased the risk that Iranian leaders will continue work in secret to enrich uranium that can be used for nuclear weapons.

‘This risk has, it’s true, increased with what has happened recently,’ Macron said.

He was asked if Iranian uranium-enrichment work could continue in secret after nearly two weeks of Israeli airstrikes and the dropping of giant bunker-busting bombs by US B-2 stealth bombers on Iranian nuclear plants.

He repeated France’s desire for negotiations to address concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

‘Our shared objective is that Iran doesn’t equip itself with a nuclear weapon,’ he said.

Israel’s airport authority said Tuesday that all flights in the country will resume after the country’s military lifted restrictions linked to the war with Iran as a fragile ceasefire took hold.

‘Following the Home Front Command’s decision in the last hour regarding the lifting of restrictions, the airports authority announces the return to full activity for the Ben Gurion and Haifa airports,’ the authority said in a statement.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Turkmenistan counterpart on Tuesday.

The two discussed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran and Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov reaffirmed commitments to U.S. citizens’ safety.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce released a readout of the call:

During the call, Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Meredov reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents are able to safely leave Iran through the Turkmenistan border. The United States expressed gratitude for Turkmenistan’s cooperation and looks forward to further partnership with Turkmenistan, including expanding economic and commercial ties.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has announced the ‘end of the 12-day war’ imposed by Israel, in a message to the nation on state television.

‘Today, after the heroic resistance of our great nation, whose determination makes history, we are witnessing the establishment of a truce and the ending of this 12-day war imposed by the adventurism and provocation’ of Israel, Pezeshkian said.

The fragile ceasefire in the Iran-Israel war appears to be holding after Trump, who had first declared the ceasefire, angrily berated both sides for violating it.

Iran announced it would respect the truce if Israel did, while Israel said it had refrained from further strikes.

Israel, in announcing it had agreed to Trump’s plan, said it had achieved all its military objectives.

Iran initially stopped short of officially accepting the proposal, but Pezeshkian later said that if ‘the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either’.

Iran will not return to the negotiating table if the US continues its ‘aggression’, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has claimed.

Iranian officials have received messages from the US, he told Al-Araby al-Jadeed.

He added that Iran ‘provided the necessary responses through intermediaries and indirect channels’.

Several Middle Eastern countries have ‘firmly condemned’ Israel’s attack on Iran since it began 12 days ago, but haved remained largely quiet on the United States’ involvment in the conflict.

Eurasia Group Managing Director Firas Maksad told MSNBC these countries are very careful to cross a volatile President Trump’.

He added they want to ‘make sure that they maintain the best relationship’ with Trump, who he pointed out visited the region only a couple of weeks ago.

Maksad also said they have ‘an interest very much in playing the role of facilitator, mediator’.

‘These are status quo powers,’ he added, noting how many Middle Eastern leaders are also thinking about their own ‘national agendas’.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement will likely be a persistent problem for the United States in the future, despite America and terrorist group having reached an agreement last month that ended a US air campaign.

‘The Houthis are likely to be a persistent problem… that we’ll be dealing with in the future a few times again,’ Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich, director for operations of the Joint Staff, told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Grynkewich has been nominated to lead the US military’s European Command.

Pictured: A Houthi soldier stands guard during a protest against the Israeli airstrikes on Iran, in Sana’a, Yemen on June 20, 2025

Pictured: Houthi supporters burn US and Israeli flags during a protest against the Israeli airstrikes on Iran, in Sana’a, Yemen on June 20, 2025

The UN is seeking access to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites in the wake of the American airstrike as President Donald Trump insisted Tehran will not make a nuclear weapon.

‘Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon, by the way. I think it’s the last thing on their mind right now,’ the president told reporters on Air Force One.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to request access for international inspectors to Iran’s nuclear facilities and its enriched uranium stockpile.

There are reports that Iran moved its 880 pounds of enriched uranium ahead of the American airstrike on Saturday night.

‘They’re not going to have enrichment, and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,’ Trump insisted of Iran.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Trump administration over the decision to postpone today’s classified briefing on the military strike in Iran.

‘Senators deserve full transparency. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening,’ Schumer said in a statement.

‘What are they afraid of? Why won’t they engage Congress in the critical details?’

The Senate briefing has been rescheduled for Thursday so Defense Secretary Pete Hegeth and Secretary of State Marco Rucio can attend, but Schumer said their appearance should be in addition to Tuesday’s briefing.

‘I think Hegseth is probably just going to give us talking points,’ Schumer said, adding that he preferred to hear from Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Dan Caine, who was scheduled to brief lawmakers.

‘He probably knows more about the military operations both now and in the future than anybody,’ he added. ‘There were good people from the State Department who knew all of the diplomatic stuff. We want to hear them.’

Both the Senate and House briefings were canceled today. Although the Senate brieng has been rescheduled, it is unclear when the House will be briefed.

The largest union of maritime workers in North America has thanked President Donald Trump for his ‘courageous decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities’.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) sent a letter to Trump yesterday saying the its 85,000 members ‘stand 100 percent behind you’ and ‘support this military action against an enemy of the US’.

Trump shared the letter on his platform Truth Social today.

The classified briefings on Trump’s decision to authorize strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have been postponed, sources told CNN.

The all-Senate hearing in which lawmakers would hear directly from intelligence leaders has been moved to Thursday.

Sources also claim the all-House briefing has been postponed – though there was no clear timeline for its rescheduling.

The briefings come as Congress prepares to debate whether to invoke the War Powers clause restraining Trump.

Some Democrats filed to impeach him for striking Iran without congressional approval. Homeland Security, meanwhile, warned of a heightened risk of a domestic attack.

Trump applauded his efforts to broker a peace deal between Iran and Israel in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

He suggested the ceasefire is a result of the US destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities in the historic missile strike Saturday night.

A view of the damage at Iranian state broadcaster IRIB

The Iranian government said it had begun efforts to rebuild residential areas and public infrastructure damaged in Israeli strikes over 12 days.

Speaking to state television, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said:

We witnessed attacks on residential areas, as well as on scientific centres, research institutes, healthcare facilities and civilians… therefore we are facing a major task ahead in terms of reconstruction.

Authorities have also begun to assess the extent of the damage.

President Donald Trump was formally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize after he brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) formally wrote to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee on Tuesday highlighting Trump’s ‘extraordinary and historic role’ in ending the ‘armed conflict between Israel and Iran’.

Carter added that Trump played a integral role in ‘preventing the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet’.

Carter’s nomination comes just hours after both Iran and Israel violated the peace agreement.

It also follows Ukranian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko withdrawing the nomination he submitted on Trump’s behalf last November.

Merezhko, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign committee, originally nominated Trump for his ‘considerable contributions to world peace’.

But on Tuesday he told Newsweek that he withdrew his nomination because he ‘lost any sort of faith and belief’ that Trump could secure a ceasefire between Kyiv and Russia.

The Trump Administration discussed ‘potential interventions’ for major oil supply disruption in the Middle East before the president authorized strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

President Trump and his advisers started ‘weighing risks’ of oil supply chain strains and higher prices weeks before Saturday’s attack, sources close to the matter told Bloomberg.

One proposed solution, according to the insider, involved releasing crude from America’s emergency stockpile.

The president could also invoke special powers outlined in the Defense Production Act of 1950 to compel American companies to supply more oil.

The White House has not disclosed its plans but Trump celebrated falling oil prices this morning, telling reporters on Air Force One: ‘I love it. It dropped almost $10 yesterday. We have a lot less conflict, so it came down.’

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have said a European accused of spying on ‘sensitive and military’ sites was arrested in the south of the country.

The arrest came as a fragile ceasefire between Iran and Israel took hold after 12 days of fighting, and followed multiple local media reports in recent days of individuals detained on accusations of spying for Israel.

‘A European was arrested by security forces from the Intelligence Organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… in Hormozgan province’, the Guards’ Sepahnews website said, noting ‘the individual… entered Iran as a tourist’.

‘He was gathering intelligence on sensitive and military sites,’ it added, without elaborating on who the suspect was accused of working for.

Iran has vowed swift trials for people arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

Authorities have also announced the executions of several people convicted of working with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

Trading closes at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday

US stocks rose today as Trump’s ceasefire announcement helped calm investor fears of a broader conflict in the oil-rich Middle East.

Financial and technology stocks led the rally among S&P 500 sub-sectors, while energy stocks declined the most, tracking a nearly 5% drop in crude prices after the ceasefire announcement eased the threat of Gulf oil supply disruptions.

Defense stocks Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp fell 1.7% and 2.5%.

Investors also assessed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments on monetary policy, where he reiterated the central bank’s wait-and-watch approach to interest rates as tariff-driven price pressures become evident.

Trump’s call for a truce marked a sharp turnaround after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend and Iran retaliated by firing missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar.

Despite reports of both Israel and Iran violating the ceasefire through the day, investors have taken heart from the de-escalation in hostilities.

At 10:20 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 288.65 points, or 0.68%, to 42,870.43, the S&P 500 gained 45.35 points, or 0.75%, to 6,070.52 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 206.04 points, or 1.05%, to 19,837.01.

People in Tel Aviv flocked to the beach on the first day of a ceasefire agreed between Israel and Iran.

Many were seen sunbathing and playing volleyball in the city earlier today.

A second flight evacuating Britons from Israel has left Tel Aviv.

The Foreign Office confirmed its departure and said further flights would be considered depending on demand.

The first RAF chartered flight departed Ben Gurion Airport with 63 British nationals and their family members on Monday.

Passengers landed at Birmingham Airport early this morning.

British nationals are urged to continue registering their presence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Tehran was far from its usual hustle and bustle today but life is starting to return to the capital after nearly two weeks of war.

In Tajrish bazaar in north Tehran, everyone had their own opinion on whether the end to the fighting announced by US President Donald Trump would last.

‘I don’t think it is sustainable,’ said Ahmad Barqi, a 75-year-old vendor of electronics.

‘We would like a ceasefire… but they don’t implement it, they don’t keep to their promises,’ he said, referring to the Israelis.

‘It seems Israel is violating the truce,’ said Alireza Jahangiri, another merchant, who heard state media reporting that Israel had carried out three rounds of strikes after the ceasefire was announced.

Nevertheless, no strikes had been recorded in Tehran since the early morning, after a night in which residents were woken by explosions more numerous than previously in the war.

‘Fortunately, we have survived,’ said one relieved Tehrani taking advantage of the truce and the good weather to walk in the park, while nearby cafes were welcoming young people happy to be able to meet up again.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have arrested 11 Iranian nationals in the country illegally, the US Department of Homeland Security has said.

Authorities also arrested a US citizen accused of threatening law enforcement and harboring one of the Iranian nationals, according to the department, which oversees ICE.

French President Emmanuel Macron has also praised Trump for brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Iran ahead of the NATO summit.

Earlier Macron said he would speak to Trump about the need to continue talks with Iran on its nuclear capabilities.

Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are spearheading European efforts to revive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Donald Trump has posted a fawning message he received privately from NATO chief Mark Rutte praising him for his ‘decisive’ and ‘truly extraordinary’ nuclear strikes in Iran.

Trump posted the screenshot message on his Truth Social page as he headed to the Netherlands for a NATO summit.

‘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,’ the message read.

NATO officials confirmed the message was sent by Rutte to Trump earlier on Tuesday, as Trump headed to The Hague for a summit of NATO leaders.

Read the full message below:

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Air Force One shortly after the presidential plane took off for Europe.

Trump revealed details of the conversation in a gaggle with reporters on the plane, saying he told Netanyahu to bring back military aircraft that the president claimed were on the verge of attacking Iran.

‘I said you gotta turn back the planes,’ Trump said.

‘There was going to be a retaliation this morning by Israel,’ the president revealed, adding he told Netanyahu to stand down.

‘And they did, which I respect very greatly, so nobody was killed,’ Trump noted.

Trump said there would be no consequences for violating the ceasefire because the planes turned around. The president is in route to The Hague for a NATO meeting.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has said the Iranians will respect a ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump provided Israel also upholds its terms.

Speaking to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Pezeshkian said:

If the Zionist regime does not violate the ceasefire, Iran will not violate it either.

The ceasefire appeared to be in tatters this morning when Israel accused Iran of firing ballistic missiles after it had come into effect.

But threats to launch ‘intense strikes’ in Tehran appeared to have been halted after Trump spoke to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will get classified intelligence briefings on the Israel-Iran war this afternoon.

The House of Representatives will receive a briefing at 3:00 pm ET.

The Senate will convene for their meeting at 4:00 pm ET.

Some lawmakers, like Speaker Mike Johnson, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, Senate Majority Leader Thune and others, have already been updated on the war.

The briefings will clue in rank-and-file members and some Democratic leaders who have yet to be updated.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump revealed Vladimir Putin called him and offered to help with Iran.

And Trump had a funny comeback to the Russian president.

‘Vladimir called me up. He said, Can I help you with Iran? I said, No, I don’t need help with Iran. I need help with you,’ Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump has been frustrated with Putin for refusing to negotiate a ceasefire on Ukraine.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

The nation’s capital is set to see another display of military strength as the North American Aerospace Defense Command flies F-16 fighter jets and other aircraft as part of a training exercise.

NORAD warned the flights would be at 2,500 feet and visible from the ground June 25th in the region around Washington, DC. Dubbed Falcon Virgo, the operation will prep for scenarios such as violations of the city’s restricted air space, ‘hijackings, and responses to unknown aircraft.’ The exercises are ‘carefully planned and closely controlled,’ it said.

The exercise comes weeks after a massive military parade on the 250thanniversary of the Army, an event that fell on President Trump’s birthday. The Department of Homeland Security warned of potential threats amid the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities before Trump announced a fragile ceasefire.

In January, a commercial airliner collided with an Army Blackhawk helicopter during an approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport across the Potomac river form D.C.

Donald Trump has attacked his predecessor Joe Biden who he accused of allowing Iranian ‘supercells’ to enter the US.

Appearing to confuse supercells with sleeper cells after he was posed a question, spies who are sent to target countries to carry out surveillance missions if called upon, Trump appeared to suggest ‘many’ had arrived in the US from Iran.

Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Trump said:

Biden was an incompetent president. Had no idea what he was doing. Among everything else, he let a lot of supercells in — many from Iran — but hopefully we’ll take care of them. What Biden did to this country should never be forgotten.

Despite the initial reports of violations, in both countries there was a palpable sense of relief that a path out of war had been charted.

Twelve days after Israel launched missiles in Iran, and two days after Trump joined in with strikes on Iranian nuclear targets, a ceasefire was announced late last night.

Speaking to Reuters, Iranian national Reza Sharifi, 38, said:

We’re happy, very happy. Who mediated or how it happened doesn’t matter. The war is over. It never should have started in the first place.

Reza is today heading back to Tehran from Rasht on the Caspian Sea where he had relocated with his family to escape strikes on the capital.

Arik Daimant, a software engineer in Tel Aviv, added:

Regrettably, it’s a bit too late for me and my family, because our house back here was totally destroyed in the recent bombings last Sunday.

But as they say: ‘better late than never’, and I hope this ceasefire is a new beginning.

Donald Trump has insisted he does not want to see ‘regime change’ in Iran, which he said would lead to chaos.

‘If there was, there was, but no I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. ‘Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos.’

Speaking en route to a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump added Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon and that Russian President Vladimir Putin called him to offer his help with the conflict.

The administration has given mixed messages on leadership in Iran and Tuesday’s comment from Trump is a shift from his earlier comments suggesting the Iranian people may want new leaders.

Netanyahu and Trump at the White House in April

A statement released from the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms he refrained from launching further strikes on Iran today following a phone call with Donald Trump.

The Israeli Air Force destroyed a radar near Tehran in response to what Israel described as three Iranian breaches of the ceasefire agreement.

According to Netanyahu’s office, the ceasefire was first violated by an Iranian missile at 7:06am – six minutes after it came into effect before two further missiles were launched at 10:25am. All three fell into open areas and caused no damage.

While Israel launched its own strike in Tehran at 3am as part of what it described as ‘targeting regime sites and eliminating hundreds of Basij members and Iranian security forces.’

A commander of the Iranian Basij paramilitary forces was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran on Monday, it has been reported.

According to Iran’s Fars news agency, Brigadier General Mohammad Taghi Yusefvand was killed as Israel launched powerful strikes against regime targets across the capital, including the Basij headquarters.

While the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is an elite military force, the Basij is a loyalist militia usually made up of foot soldiers.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog has visited the scene of an Iranian missile attack in Beersheba where four people were killed and dozens more wounded.

Speaking at the scene of the attack, which destroyed homes, a school and a kindergarten, Herzog said Iran used one of its most dangerous weapons to wipe out ordinary Israelis.

That missile, which is one of the heaviest missiles in the Iranian arsenal, way above 400 kilos, landed here specifically to kill women, children, the elderly, people living ordinary lives.

A furious Donald Trump penned three posts on Truth Social as well as his rant on the White House lawn after claiming Israel and Iran both violated a ceasefire deal brokered by the President last night.

As he boarded Marine One to head to the Netherlands for a NATO summit, Trump posted the following:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have revealed details of the final wave of attacks against Israel before the ceasefire came into effect.

In a statement posted by the Tasnim news agency, the IRGC said it fired 14 missiles at Israeli military centres this morning.

Iranian state television said the ceasefire, which was brokered by Donald Trump, would take place in Iran from 7.30am local time.

Israel claimed Tehran violated the truce by firing a ballistic missile after the agreement was in effect.

Iran has released new figures stating 610 people have been killed as a result of Israeli strikes over the past 12 days.

Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesman for the Iranian health ministry, said hospitals across the country had faced ‘extremely distressing scenes’ as he provided an update on the number of deaths and injuries.

He said 610 people had been killed and 4,746 had been injured, 971 of whom are currently in hospital.

President Trump called Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked him not to attack Iran, an Axios reporter said citing an Israeli official.

Netanyahu told Trump that he was unable to cancel the attack and that it was needed because Iran violated the ceasefire, journalist Barak Ravid said.

The attack would be significantly scaled back and would not hit a large number of targets but only strike one target, according to the report.

Israel’s air force carried out a ‘small strike against an Iranian radar north of Tehran,’ The Times of Israel reports citing officials.

Pictures circulating in Israeli and Iranian media have shown clouds of smoke rising at what is said to be the site.

At the same time, Iran’s judiciary news outlet Mizan and the Shargh newspaper reported that two explosions were heard in the Iranian capital.

Israel is leaning towards carrying out an attack on Tehran, according to Israeli media reports.

The reports, citing officials, suggest that a ‘symbolic’ strike is likely.

Trump has insisted that Israel ‘is not going to attack Iran’ and said that the ceasefire he brokered remains ‘in effect’ after he issued a warning to the US ally.

Writing on his platform Truth Social, he said: ‘ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly “Plane Wave” to Iran. Nobody will be hurt, the Ceasefire is in effect!’

President Donald Trump unleashed on CNN, MSNBC and the TV networks for suggesting the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites didn’t kill the Iranians nuclear program.

‘I think it has been completely demolished,’ Trump said, adding that the pilots did an ‘unbelievable job.’

‘And you know the fake news, CNN in particular, they’re trying to say, “Well, I agree that it was destroyed but maybe not that destroyed.” You know what they’re doing? They’re really hurting great pilots that put their lives on the line,’ Trump said.

‘CNN is scum and so is MSDNC … and frankly the networks aren’t much better,’ Trump continued, speaking to reporters outside the White House early Tuesday morning as he departed for the NATO Summit in the Hague.

MSDNC – as in MS ‘Democratic National Committee’ – is a nickname the president uses for the left-leaning network, MSNBC.

‘That place is under rock. That place is demolished,’ the president said of the Iranian nuclear installment Fordow, the main target of Saturday’s strike. ‘The B-2 pilots did their job. They did it better than anybody could even imagine.’

‘It was dark with no moon and they hit their target with every one of those things and that place is gone,’ the president said. ‘But when I see CNN all night long, they’re trying to say, “maybe it wasn’t really as demolished as we thought.”

‘That place was gone,’ Trump insisted. ‘I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2s, I think MSDNC ought to apologize. I think these guys, these networks, cable networks, are real losers. They really are. They’re real losers.’

Trump kept going.

‘They’re gutless losers. I say that to CNN because I watch it. I have no choice, I’ve got to watch that garbage, it’s all garbage. It’s all fake news. But I think CNN is a gutless group of people and the people that run it, nobody knows this because it’s been sold so many times, but the people who run it ought to be ashamed.’

‘MSDNC, a guy named Brian Roberts, he heads it, he’s a disgrace,’ Trump continued. ‘He’s a weak, pathetic disgrace.’

Roberts is the Comcast CEO, the company that owns NBCUniversal, though MSNBC, NBC’s cable channel, is expected to be spun off from the cable giant within the year.

Donald Trump has warned Israel not to target Tehran, writing in all capitals on Truth Social: ‘Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!’

The post comes after Israel said it is preparing to ‘respond forcefully’ to an earlier Iranian strike on its territory, which it said breached the ceasefire agreement.

President Donald Trump went on a foul-mouthed tirade saying that both Israel and Iran violated the ceasefire deal that he announced Monday evening.

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,’ Trump said before boarding Marine One en route to NATO early Tuesday morning.

During his gaggle with reporters outside the White House, Trump complained that ahead of when the ceasefire was to take hold, Israel launched another assault on Iran.

‘Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen,’ Trump said.

‘I’m not happy with Israel,’ he added. ‘I’m not happy with Iran either. But I’m really unhappy if Israel’s going out this morning because of one rocket that didn’t land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn’t land. I’m not happy about that.’

The Kremlin has today pushed back against criticism that it had not done enough to back Iran, insisting it had taken a ‘clear position’ by condemning US and Israeli strikes on Tehran.

President Vladimir Putin has condemned what he called ‘unjustified’ US attacks on nuclear sites in Iran, with which he signed a strategic cooperation treaty in January.

He said on Monday that Russia would try to help the Iranian people, although he gave no specifics.

Iranian sources told Reuters earlier this week that Tehran had not been impressed with Russia’s support so far.

Asked about comparisons to the toppling last year of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, when Moscow refused to send troops or more air power to keep its ally in power, the Kremlin said some people were trying to spoil the Russian-Iranian partnership.

‘Russia actually supported Iran with its clear position,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had appreciated Moscow’s stance when he met Putin on Monday.

Donald Trump declared this weekend that his bunker-busting bombs ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear facilities and erased the Islamic Republic’s chances of building a bomb.

But no amount of triumphant bluster can hide the fact that Iran still boasts significant stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) – and could well have other facilities lying in wait to reach purity levels required to fashion nuclear warheads.

In May, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that Iran had accumulated more than 400 kilograms (900 lbs) of uranium enriched to 60% purity.

This is already enough to create an atomic weapon like those that laid waste to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Such bombs are too heavy and cumbersome for Iran to deploy effectively. But achieving the 90% enrichment required to produce modern nuclear devices small and light enough to mount to any one of Tehran’s vast array of missiles could take mere weeks.

Read the full story by MailOnline’s Chief Foreign Reporter David Averre here:

Iran’s foreign minister has said his country’s attack on a US airbase in Qatar was not against its Gulf neighbour but an act of ‘self-defence’ after US strikes on nuclear sites.

‘The missile operation by the Iranian Armed Forces targeting Al-Udeid base was carried out within the framework of Iran’s legitimate right to self-defence,’ Araghchi said in a phone call with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

The Iranian attack ‘should in no way be interpreted as an action against the friendly and brotherly government of Qatar’, he said, quoted in a statement from his ministry.

Monday’s attack on Al Udeid Air Base was carried out in retaliation for American strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has held a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in which he expressed regret over the strike.

Details of the phone call were revealed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister in a press conference earlier today.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out strikes on it after the ceasefire was meant to come into effect.

Israel struck Iran in three stages up until 9am local time (0530 GMT) on Tuesday, the spokesperson of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central military headquarters said, according to state TV.

Iranian state TV earlier said a ceasefire would take place in Iran from 7.30am local time on Tuesday.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, its top security body, earlier said its armed forces were prepared to ‘decisively respond’ to renewed attacks.

Iran is assessing damage to its nuclear industry and arrangements have been made for its restoration, Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami has said.

In a statement carried by Iran’s Mehr news, Elsami (pictured) said:

We have taken the necessary measures and are currently assessing the areas that were damaged.

Preparations for recovery had already been anticipated, and our plan is to prevent any interruption in production or services.

Iran’s top security body has insisted the country is ready to deliver a ‘decisive’ response in the event of further Israeli attacks.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said actions taken had led to ‘victory and triumph’ with Israel compelled to ‘accept defeat and halt its aggression’.

In a statement, the security council said Iranian forces ‘remain on high alert, with fingers on the trigger, ready to deliver a decisive and regret-inducing response to any act of aggression’.

It comes as Israel vowed to launch ‘intense strikes’ in Tehran following claims Iran had violated a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump.

If you’re just joining us, here are the key updates so far this morning:

• Israel’s military has said it will attack ‘with force’ after accusing Iran of committing a ‘serious ceasefire violation’.
• The IDF said it had identified two ballistic missiles launched from Iran two hours after the ceasefire went into effect.
• Iran has denied launching the missiles and insisted it did not violate the ceasefire, according to state media.
• Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between the warring sides last night, warning the arch foes ‘please do not violate it’.
• An Iranian missile hit a residential building in Beersheba this morning, killing four and injuring a dozen others.
• Iran experienced one of its most intense nights of the 12-day war, according to reports, with Tehran hit by missiles and at least nine people killed in the north, officials said.
• His declaration came after Iran launched missiles at a US airbase in Qatar – all of which were intercepted.