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Russia’s summer offensive in Ukraine underwhelms – but Kyiv won’t be celebrating

For months the talk in Kyiv was of a much-anticipated Russian offensive that would aim to gobble up more of the Ukraine’s eastern regions. So far, it’s been underwhelming – but the Russians have made some gains and vastly reinforced their troop numbers in some areas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to pursue territorial gains as ceasefire talks take a back seat. Last week he restated what has long been one of his key ways of justifying his unprovoked invasion.

“I consider the Russian and Ukrainian peoples to be one people,” he said. “In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours.”

Even so, the Ukrainians have launched counterattacks in some areas and are rapidly developing a domestic weapons industry. And Russia’s wartime economy is facing stronger headwinds.

Russian troops are trying to advance in multiple areas of the 1,200-kilometer (746-mile) frontline. Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said this week there are now 111,000 Russian troops in one part of the frontline alone – near the flashpoint city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk, where there are at least 50 clashes every day. That compares to about 70,000 Russian troops in the area last December, according to the Ukrainian General Staff.

Syrskyi also claimed that the Russian infiltration of the northern region of Sumy had been halted. The Institute for the Study of War – a Washington-based think-tank, says Ukrainian forces have regained some territory in Sumy and the pace of Russian advances there has slowed.

“We can say that the wave of attempts at a ‘summer offensive’ launched by the enemy from Russian territory is fizzling out,” Syrskyi claimed.

But it’s a mixed picture. In recent days Russian infantry assaults have gained ground on the border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The Russian defense ministry claimed on Saturday that another village, Zirka, had been taken.

DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source analyst, asserted that Ukrainian “defenses continue to collapse rapidly, and the enemy is making significant advances … with constant assaults” in that area.

The Kremlin has long insisted its campaign will continue until it holds all of the eastern Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. (It already occupies all but a sliver of Luhansk).

At the current rate of progress that would take many years. But with the Trump administration apparently less committed to driving ceasefire negotiations, the conflict seems likely to drag on through the end of the year and into 2026.

The three-dimensional battlefield is now an unlikely combination of ingenious drone-led special operations and very basic infantry assaults.

At one end of the spectrum, Ukraine’s audacious attacks at the beginning of June on Russian strategic bombers used drones operated from trucks deep inside Russian territory – a mission that took out about a dozen aircraft used to launch missiles against Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Security Service reported another drone attack Saturday that it clamed had caused extensive damage to a Russian airbase in Crimea.

By contrast, Russian soldiers on foot and motorbikes – sometimes in groups of a dozen or less – push into abandoned villages in eastern Ukraine, with drones for cover but no armor in site. It’s an approach that is forcing a change in Ukrainian tactics: to smaller fortified positions. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said last week that defenses were being camouflaged to match the terrain and made smaller to avoid detection.

The Drone War

While infantry defend or take territory, drones continue to play a greater role in shaping the conflict. The Russians are churning out cheap, mass-produced drones designed to overwhelm air defenses and allow some of their missiles to get through. The Russians have increasingly used this tactic to hit Ukrainian cities, especially Kyiv, which has sustained considerable damage and higher civilian casualties in recent weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that overnight “477 drones were in our skies, most of them Russian-Iranian Shaheds, along with 60 missiles of various types. The Russians were targeting everything that sustains life.”

The Russians use “up to 500 (Iranian designed) Shaheds per night, combining them with ballistic and cruise missiles — aiming to exhaust our air defenses,” says Umerov.

Zelensky has reiterated pleas for more Patriot missile batteries and other western systems, which Trump said last week that the US “should consider” because of large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Zelensky has said Ukraine is prepared to buy Patriots directly or through the fund established by the US-Ukrainian minerals deal.

Both sides are producing drones of all types at an astonishing rate. Ukraine’s Security Service reckons Russia is producing nearly 200 Iranian-designed Shahed drones every day, and has an inventory of some 6,000, in addition to about 6,000 decoy drones. Over the last week, the Russians have used more than 23,000 small “kamikaze” drones on the frontlines, according to the Ukrainian military’s General Staff.

It’s a never-ending race in design and production. Syrskyi said recently that Russia had developed an edge in fiber-optic-controlled drones, which are more difficult to track and intercept.

Drone warfare is a “constant intellectual struggle — the enemy regularly changed algorithms, and Ukraine adapted tactics in response,” Umerov said. “Solutions that showed high effectiveness at the beginning of the war have lost it over time as the enemy changed tactics.”

For its part, Ukraine is stepping up production of the long-range drones it has used to attack Russian infrastructure, such as airfields, refineries and transport. Umerov said “tens of thousands” would be produced, in addition to more than four million battlefield drones this year.

The longer term

Both sides continue to build defense industries that allow them to keep fighting – even if the scale of Russian production far outstrips that of Ukraine. Russia’s huge military conglomerate Rostec is producing an estimated 80% of the equipment used against Ukraine.

Its CEO Sergey Chemezov claimed at a meeting with Putin this month that Rostec’s production has grown tenfold since 2021, and its revenues rose last year to an eye-watering $46 billion.

But there are darkening clouds on the horizon. Russia’s military budget is some 40% of its total public spending – more than 6% of its GDP. That’s stoked inflation, and Putin acknowledged last week that growth this year would be “much more modest” to combat rising prices. He even suggested that defense spending would decline next year.

One senior Russian official, Maksim Reshetnikov, who is Economic Development minister, said that “based on current business sentiment, it seems to me we are on the brink of transitioning into recession.”

The head of Russia’s Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, disagreed with Reshetnikov but warned that financial buffers like the national reserve fund are nearly depleted.

“We must understand that many of these resources have been used up,” she told the St. Petersburg International Forum.

Putin himself acknowledged the risk, saying that while some experts predicted stagnation, it should “not be allowed under any circumstances.”

While the longer-term prognosis for Russia may be gloomy – economically and demographically – it can continue in the short-term to fund an army of more than half-a-million men that’s in Ukraine or close to its border, taking a few kilometers here and there. Despite hundreds of thousands of casualties, the Russian military can still generate forces far greater than Ukraine.

His eye still very much on the prize, Putin said last week: “We have a saying … where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Revealed: The extensive perks UN officials receive amid budget crisis

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has directed staff to slash budgets ahead of the 2026 budgetary vote as part of a wider reform effort through his UN80 Initiative. 

Much of the belt-tightening comes at a time when the Trump administration has looked to save money with the help of DOGE. In March, Guterres warned about cuts to U.S. spending at the U.N., stating that ‘going through with recent funding cuts will make the world less healthy, less safe, and less prosperous.’ The U.S., as the top funder to the world body, has given billions over the last few years, while paying around a third of its budget.

However, organizational belt-tightening does not appear to have hit senior-level U.N. staff. 

‘The American people don’t even see this,’ a diplomatic source told Fox News Digital. ‘These people that are appointed to care for the poor of the world, get better perks than any investment banks out there.’

The diplomatic insider told Fox News Digital that the current ‘zero-growth’ budget for 2026 still includes ‘a lot of perks’ for professional- and director-level U.N. staff along with assistant-secretaries, under-secretaries and the secretary-general. 

Fox News Digital recently reported that Guterres earned $418,348, which is a higher base salary than President Donald Trump receives. And that doesn’t include some of the perks the U.N. chief gets, including a plush Manhattan residence and chauffeur-driven car.

Additionally, though U.N. documents say senior-level U.N. staff are ‘going to be the first thing to be reduced,’ the source says that ‘in the budget of 2026, none of that is touched.’ 

Here is a list of perks:

Salary and Multiplier

U.N. professional staff, including Guterres, are paid a general salary as well as an additional multiplier of their salary based on their post. Multipliers are meant to ‘preserve equivalent purchasing power for all duty stations’ and can range from 16% in Eswatini, Africa, to 86.8% in Switzerland, according to data provided to Fox News Digital by a U.N. source.

The U.N. pay scale has been set to compare with ‘equivalently graded jobs in the comparator civil service in Washington, D.C.,’ with compensation about ’10 to 20% ahead of the comparator service’ to ‘attract and retain staff from all countries, including the comparator.’

Housing Allowance and Tax Exemption

Other expenses that may be compensated for include taxes paid and housing costs.

U.N. staff’s rent may be subsidized by up to 40% if it ‘exceeds a so-called rent threshold’ based on an employee’s income. 

Many member states exempt U.N. employees from paying taxes, but employees of the organization who must pay taxes at their duty station are reimbursed for the cost.

Dependent Costs

There are substantial benefits for staff with dependents.

Staff receive an allowance of 6% of their net income if their spouses earn less than an entry-level general service U.N. salary. 

Staff who are parents receive a flat allowance of $2,929 for children under 18, or who are under 21 and in secondary schooling. A second child allowance for staff without spouses is set at $1,025. 

U.N. employees may receive grants to cover a portion of the education costs for dependent children through up to four years of post-secondary education. Reimbursements are calculated on a sliding scale. In a sample calculation, the U.N. explains that it would reimburse $34,845 of a $47,000 tuition. 

Boarding fees may also be reimbursed up to $5,300 during primary and secondary education.

Pension Fund, Healthcare Fees

U.N. staff have access to the U.N. joint staff pension fund, which allows employees to contribute 23.7% of ‘pensionable remuneration, with two-thirds paid by the organization and one-third by the staff member.’

Travel Fees

The U.N. pays travel expenses for staff ‘on initial appointment, on change of duty station, on separation from service, for travel on official business, for home leave travel, and on travel to visit family members.’ In some instances, the U.N. also pays for eligible spouses and dependent children to travel. 

Travel expenses include a ‘daily subsistence allowance (DSA)’ meant to cover ‘the average cost of lodging and other expenses.’ Eligible family members receive half the DSA, while director-level staff and above receive an additional DSA supplement.

Hardship, Relocation, Mobility and Other Incentives

For staff who change assignments at certain duty stations, U.N. mobility incentives begin at $6,700 and can grow to more than $15,075.

If changing stations for an assignment lasting more than a year, settling-in benefitscomprise30 days’ DSA for staff and half-DSA for eligible families, as well as one month of net pay and one month of post adjustment at the assignment duty station. Moving expenses may include the full or partial removal and transport of household goods, or the storage of those items.

Hardship allowances of between $5,930 and $23,720 may be granted for non-local staff in certain duty stations. The U.N. issues allowances of $19,800 for staff with dependents and $7,500 for staff without dependents stationed at non-family duty stations ‘to recognize the increased level of financial and psychological hardship incurred by involuntary separation.’ Danger pay of $1,645 may also be allocated to staff whose association or employment may make them ‘clearly, persistently, and directly targeted,’ or in duty stations where there is a ‘high risk of becoming collateral damage in a war or active armed conflict.’ 

Terminated Employees

Terminated employees are also allowed separation payments, typically constituting several months’ pay if their appointment has been terminated due to ‘abolition of post or reduction of staff; poor health or incapacitation for further service; unsatisfactory service; agreed termination.’ Those terminated for unsatisfactory service or misconduct may receive half the typical separation payment. 

A repatriation grant may additionally be paid to staff who have been in expatriate service for at least five years, unless staff were ‘summarily dismissed.’

Future Cuts to Senior Pay?

In response to questions about Fox News Digital’s source’s statements about U.N. employee compensation being on par with that of an investment banker, Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the assertion was ‘ludicrous’ and ‘demonstrates an ignorance of both the United Nations and the investment banking worlds.’

Dujarric did not deny that the 2026 budget proposal includes no cutting of senior personnel or benefits. ‘The budget proposal for 2026 was prepared before the launch of the UN80 initiative,’ he said. ‘We are currently working on identifying efficiencies, including reductions in post, and a revised proposal will be submitted to the General Assembly in the Fall for its deliberations, which usually take place between October and December.’ 

Dujarric added that the International Civil Service Commission, an independent group of 15 expert appointees which creates the system of salaries, benefits and allowances for the U.N., is ‘undertaking a comprehensive review of the compensation package for the international Professional and higher category of staff,’ with the results due for presentation in 2026. 

‘The secretary-general has no authority of the decisions of the ICSC or the appointment of its members,’ he said.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Trump administration takes on new battle shutting down initial Iran strike assessments

A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report is casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s claim that recent U.S. airstrikes ‘completely and totally obliterated’ three Iranian nuclear facilities, instead concluding the mission only set back Iran’s program by several months.

The report, published by CNN and The New York Times, comes just days after Trump approved the strikes amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. In a national address immediately following the operation, Trump declared the sites ‘completely and totally obliterated.’ 

While members of the Trump administration have waged a new war to discredit the initial report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, multiple experts told Fox News Digital that there is too little information available right now to accurately determine how much damage the strikes did. 

Piecing together a thorough intelligence assessment is complex and time-consuming, they said. 

Dan Shapiro, who previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he didn’t put a lot of stock in both overly pessimistic or overly optimistic assessments that emerged quickly, and said that the initial assessment from DIA was likely only based on satellite imagery. 

‘That’s one piece of the puzzle of how you would really make this assessment,’ Shapiro, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. ‘You’d really want to have to test all the other streams of intelligence, from signals intelligence, human intelligence, other forms of monitoring the site, potentially visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, potentially visits by other people. So that’s going to take days to weeks to get a real assessment.’ 

‘But I think it’s likely that if the munitions performed as expected, that significant damage was done, and would set back the program significantly,’ Shapiro said. 

Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that initial battle damage assessments suggested ‘all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,’ but he acknowledged that a final assessment would ‘take some time.’ 

Still, media reports based on the DIA report painted a different picture, and CNN’s reporting on the initial report said that Iran’s stash of enriched uranium was not destroyed in the strikes, citing seven people who had been briefed on the report. The findings were based on a battle damage assessment from U.S. Central Command, according to CNN. 

Other members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, have subsequently pushed back on the DIA report’s conclusions, claiming that the report was labeled ‘low confidence.’ 

The term is commonly used when labeling initial assessments, and means that conclusions are based on limited data, according to experts. 

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who previously served as the director for transnational threats at the National Security Council for former President Bill Clinton, said the low confidence description is commonly used in early assessments. 

‘Low confidence means the analyst is not sure of the accuracy of their assessment,’ said Montgomery, now a senior fellow at the Washington think tank the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. ‘This is frequent when with a Quick Look 24-hour assessment like this one.’

Montgomery’s colleague, Craig Singleton, also a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that the low confidence label is used in cases with thin evidence and serves as a warning to policy-makers to seek additional information. 

‘Most importantly, low confidence assessments are usually issued when key facts have yet to be verified, which certainly applies in this case,’ Singleton said.

Rob Greenway, former deputy assistant to the president on Trump’s National Security Council, told Fox News Digital that it will take one or two months to get a more thorough assessment with higher confidence. 

Greenway also said that the strikes were designed to create damage underground, which will complicate the assessment of damage, because it is not immediately available and will require multiple sources of intelligence, such as signals or human intelligence, to draw conclusions. 

Israel had also previously conducted strikes targeting the sites, adding to the web of analysis that must be evaluated, Greenway said. 

‘Each of these are one piece of a much larger puzzle, and you’re trying to gauge the ultimate effect of the entirety of the puzzle, not just one particular strike,’ said Greenway, now the director of the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation. ‘All of that means it’s going to take time in order to do it.’ 

Even so, Greenway said that the amount of ordnance dropped on the sites – including more than 14 30,000-lb. bombs – means that the targeted facilities have been so heavily compromised they are no longer serviceable. 

‘We were putting twice the amount of ordnance required to achieve the desired effect, just to make sure that we didn’t have to go back,’ Greenway said. 

‘There’s virtually no mathematical probability in which either facility can be used again by Iran for the intended purpose, if at all, which again means that everything now is within Israel’s capability to strike if that’s required,’ Greenway said. 

And Michael Allen, a former National Security Council senior director in the George W. Bush administration, said that even though a final judgment from the intelligence community won’t be ready soon, the intelligence portrait will become ‘richer’ in the coming days. 

‘Stuff is pouring in, and we’re out there collecting it, and they’re trying to hustle it to the White House as soon as possible,’ Allen, now the managing director of advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies, told Fox News Digital. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that very few people had access to this report, and those who leaked it to the media will be held accountable as the FBI investigates who shared the document with the press. 

‘That person was irresponsible with it,’ Leavitt told reporters Thursday. ‘And we need to get to the bottom of it. And we need to strengthen that process to protect our national security and protect the American public.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Schumer forces reading of Trump’s entire ‘big, beautiful bill’ as Senate braces for all-nighter

The top Democrat in the Senate plans to inflict maximum pain on Senate Republicans in their march to pass President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ before lawmakers even get a chance to debate the legislative behemoth.

Indeed, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’ll force clerks on the Senate floor to read the entirety of the GOP’s 940-page megabill. His move to drain as much time as possible came after Republicans vote on a key procedural test to open debate on the legislation.

‘I will object to Republicans moving forward on their Big, Ugly Bill without reading it on the Senate floor,’ Schumer said on X. ‘Republicans won’t tell America what’s in the bill

‘So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor,’ he said. ‘We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it.’

Indeed, staffers were seen carting the bill onto the Senate floor in preparation for the all-night read-a-thon.

Schumer’s move is expected to take up to 15 hours and is designed to allow Senate Democrats more time to parse through the myriad provisions within the massive legislative text. Ultimately, it will prove a smokescreen as Senate Republicans will continue to march toward a final vote.

Once the bill reading is done, 20 hours of debate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans will begin, likely early Sunday morning. Democrats are expected to use their entire 10-hour chunk, while Republicans will go far under their allotted time.

Then comes the ‘vote-a-rama’ process, where lawmakers can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the bill.

Democrats will again look to extract as much pain as possible during that process, while Republicans, particularly senators that have lingering issues with key Medicaid and land sale provisions, will continue to try and shape and mold the bill.

The last time clerks were forced to read the entirety of a bill during the budget reconciliation process was in 2021, when Senate Democrats held the majority in the upper chamber.

At the time, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., demanded that the entire, over-600-page American Rescue Act be read aloud. Schumer, who was the Senate Majority Leader attempting to ram then-President Joe Biden’s agenda through the upper chamber, objected to the reading. 

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Kneecap rapper charged with terrorism offense over alleged Hezbollah flag

A member of Irish hip hop trio Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offense following an investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police.

Liam O’Hanna, 27, of Belfast has been charged with allegedly displaying a flag “in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation,” London’s Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.

The charge relates to a flag that was allegedly displayed by O’Hanna – whose stage name is Mo Chara – on November 21, 2024, at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, a music venue in London, “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation, namely Hezbollah,” the police said in a statement.

“Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on Tuesday, April 22, of an online video from the event. An investigation was carried out, which led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorizing the above charge,” the statement said.

The police added that O’Hanna is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 18.

Kneecap have been vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza. Earlier this month, UK counter-terrorism police said they were investigating the group after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for British politicians to be killed and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

Kneecap has previously said it has never supported Hamas or Hezbollah and that the footage circulating online has been “deliberately taken out of all context” as part of a “smear campaign” following their criticism of Israel and the United States in regards to the war in Gaza.

Separately, video from November 2023 appeared to show one member of the group, who are from Northern Ireland, saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Tory is another word for Conservative, and MP is an abbreviation of Member of Parliament. In the past decade, two British MPs – Jo Cox and David Amess – have been murdered.

Kneecap later apologized to the families of Cox and Amess.

This was due to the time that elapsed between the events shown in the video and the video being brought to police attention, a spokesperson said.

Both videos have been widely circulated online in wake of the band’s Coachella set, where they led the crowd to chant “Free Free Palestine,” criticized Israel’s campaign in Gaza, and also criticized US support for the war.

Kneecap’s manager, Daniel Lambert, recently told Irish broadcaster RTÉ that the controversy “has nothing to do with Kneecap… it’s about telling the next young band… that you cannot speak about Palestine.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Trump, lawmakers react after ‘big, beautiful bill’ clears Senate hurdle

Lawmakers from across the aisle are reacting to President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ passing a key Senate vote on Saturday night.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who flipped his vote from a ‘no’ to ‘yes’ in dramatic fashion, said in a statement that the mammoth bill is a ‘necessary first step’ to fiscal sustainability and cleaning up the mess left by the Biden administration.

‘Biden and the Democrats left behind enormous messes that we are trying to clean up – an open border, wars, and massive deficits,’ Johnson said. ‘After working for weeks with President Trump and his highly capable economic team, I am convinced that he views this as a necessary first step and will support my efforts to help put America on a path to fiscal sustainability.’

The 51-49 vote went along party lines, with only Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting against unlocking a marathon 20-hour debate on the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was among the Democrats against what he called a ‘radical’ bill.

‘Senate Republicans are scrambling to pass a radical bill, released to the public in the dead of night, praying the American people don’t realize what’s in it,’ Schumer said in a statement. ‘If Senate Republicans won’t tell the American people what’s in this bill, then Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish.’

The bill will not immediately be debated thanks to Senate Democrats’ plan to force the reading of the entire, 940-page legislative behemoth on the Senate floor.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., however, said he was ‘proud’ to work with Trump on the bill and ‘put our nation on a path to balance the budget after years of Democrats’ reckless spending.’

Trump has said that he wants the bill, which must pass the Senate before being sent to the House for a vote, on his desk by July 4.

Trump called the Senate vote a ‘great victory’ and directly praised Sens. Johnson, Scott, Mike Lee, R-Ariz., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., in a post on his Truth Social platform.

‘They, along with all of the other Republican Patriots who voted for the Bill, are people who truly love our Country!’ Trump wrote. ‘As President of the USA, I am proud of them all, and look forward to working with them to GROW OUR ECONOMY, REDUCE WASTEFUL SPENDING, SECURE OUR BORDER, FIGHT FOR OUR MILITARY/VETS, ENSURE THAT OUR MEDICAID SYSTEM HELPS THOSE WHO TRULY NEED IT, PROTECT OUR SECOND AMENDMENT, AND SO MUCH MORE. GOD BLESS AMERICA &, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!’

In a second post, Trump wrote, ‘VERY PROUD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TONIGHT. GOD BLESS YOU ALL! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!’

Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.

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Israeli strike on Iranian prison killed more than 70, says Iran state-affiliated media

Israel’s attack on Evin Prison in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday killed 71 people, according to Mizan, the news outlet of the Iranian judiciary.

“The martyrs include prison administrative staff, conscripted soldiers, inmates, family members of prisoners who were at the prison for visits or legal follow-ups, and neighbors living near the prison,” judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said in remarks published on Sunday.

The state-affiliated news agency Fars reported that “much damage” had been recorded in the surrounding area.

The Israeli military attacked the entrance of Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on Monday, according to Israel’s defense minister and Iranian state news.

Security forces at the Evin detention center are known for their long record of human rights abuses, according to regime critics. Political activists, journalists and musicians are among those who have been incarcerated at the facility.

It is unclear why Israel targeted the facility. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in a statement that Evin had been targeted, alongside several other sites, including the flagship building of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij headquarters (a paramilitary wing of the IRGC), without providing any further details.

France’s foreign minister condemned the strike on the prison, which was housing two French nationals.

“The strike aimed at Evin Prison in Tehran put in danger two of our nationals, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, hostages for the past three years. It’s unacceptable,” Jean-Noël Barrot said in a post on X following the attack.

The couple were on holiday in Iran in May 2022 when they were stopped by authorities and arrested on suspicion of espionage. In October that year, Iranian state television broadcast a forced confession from the pair, during which Kohler said she was an agent working for France’s intelligence services, the DGES.

A ceasefire between Iran and Israel was announced late on Monday, after 12 days of back and forth strikes that started when Israel attacked Iran earlier this month.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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UK police assess footage of Glastonbury acts over anti-Israel chants

British police say they are reviewing comments made on stage by rap punk duo Bob Vylan and hip hop trio Kneecap at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Rapper Bobby Vylan took to the festival’s third-biggest West Holts Stage on Saturday shouting “Free, free Palestine,” before leading crowds to chants against the Israeli military.

Video showed the rapper shouting into the mic, “Alright, but have you heard this one though? Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).”

The artist also performed in front of a screen that displayed a message which read: “United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a ‘conflict,’” referring to the UK’s public broadcaster that has been showing the festival live.

The Israeli Embassy in the UK said it was “deeply disturbed” by what it called “inflammatory and hateful” rhetoric at the festival.

It said that when chants such as “Death to the IDF” are said in front of tens of thousands of festivalgoers, “it raises serious concerns about the normalisation of extremist language and the glorification of violence.”

“We call on Glastonbury Festival organisers, artists, and public leaders in the UK to denounce this rhetoric and reject of all forms of hatred,” it added.

Glastonbury Festival said in a statement that was “appalled” by Vylan’s remarks.

“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence,” organizers said.

Ahead of the five-day music festival, all eyes were on Irish-language hip hop trio Kneecap after band member Liam O’Hanna – who performs under the state name Mo Chara – was charged last month with a terrorism offense following an investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police.

The charge, which he has denied, relates to a London gig in November 2024 where he allegedly displayed a flag of Hezbollah – a proscribed terrorist organization banned under UK law. Ahead of the festival at Worthy Farm, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he did not think it was “not appropriate” for the group to perform.

Kneecap have been vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza but have previously said it has never supported Hamas or Hezbollah.

During the set, Mo Chara told the crowds that recent events had been “stressful” but that it was nothing in comparison to “what the Palestinian people are going through.”

Kneecap rapper Naoise O Caireallain, who goes by the stage name Móglaí Bap, hit back at Starmer’s comment during Saturday’s set: “The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so f**k Keir Starmer.”

In reference to his bandmate’s forthcoming court date, O Caireallain also said they would “start a riot outside the courts,” before adding: “I don’t want anybody to start a riot. No riots just love and support, and more importantly support for Palestine.”

Police in Somerset, where the festival is held, said the force was “aware of the comments made by acts” and that “video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting slammed the performance as “appalling” in an interview with Sky News on Sunday morning.

He said that the BBC, which broadcast the set live, and Glastonbury “have got questions to answer.”

A BBC spokesperson said that some of the comments made during Vylan’s performance were “deeply offensive,” and added it had no plans to make the performance available on demand through its iPlayer streaming platform.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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UN nuclear watchdog chief says Iran could again begin enriching uranium in ‘matter of months’

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog says US strikes on Iran fell short of causing total damage to its nuclear program and that Tehran could restart enriching uranium “in a matter of months,” contradicting President Donald Trump’s claims the US set Tehran’s ambitions back by decades.

While the final military and intelligence assessment has yet to come, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have “completely and totally obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program.

The 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran began earlier this month when Israel launched an unprecedented attack it said aimed at preventing Tehran developing a nuclear bomb. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The US then struck three key Iranian nuclear sites before a ceasefire began. The extent of the damage to Tehran’s nuclear program has been hotly debated ever since.

US military officials have in recent days provided some new information about the planning of the strikes, but offered no new evidence of their effectiveness against Iran’s nuclear program.

Following classified briefings this week, Republican lawmakers acknowledged the US strikes may not have eliminated all of Iran’s nuclear materials – but argued that this was never part of the military’s mission.

Severe but not ‘total’ damage

Asked about the different assessments, Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CBS’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan”: “This hourglass approach in weapons of mass destruction is not a good idea.”

“The capacities they have are there. They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” he told Brennan, according to a transcript released ahead of the broadcast.

“It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it’s not total damage,” Grossi went on to say. “Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.”

Grossi also told CBS News that the IAEA has resisted pressure to say whether Iran has nuclear weapons or was close to having weapons before the strikes.

“We didn’t see a program that was aiming in that direction (of nuclear weapons), but at the same time, they were not answering very, very important questions that were pending.”

Grossi stressed the need for the IAEA to be granted access to Iran, to assess nuclear activities. He said Iran had been disclosing information to the agency up until recent Israeli and US strikes, but that “there were some things that they were not clarifying to us.”

“In this sensitive area of the number of centrifuges and the amount of material, we had perfect view,” he said. “What I was concerned about is that there were other things that were not clear. For example, we had found traces of uranium in some places in Iran, which were not the normal declared facilities. And we were asking for years, why did we find these traces of enriched uranium in place x, y or z? And we were simply not getting credible answers.”

The initial Pentagon assessment said Tehran may have moved some of the enriched uranium out of the sites before they were attacked but Trump has insisted nothing was moved.

“It’s logical to presume that when they announce that they are going to be taking protective measures, this could be part of it (moving the material). But, as I said, we don’t know where this material could be, or if part of it could have been, you know, under the attack during those 12 days,” Grossi told Brennan.

Meanwhile, Tehran has made moves towards withdrawing from international oversight over its nuclear program.

Iran’s parliament passed a bill halting cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, while the Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, also said that the country could also rethink its membership of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which prohibits signatories from developing nuclear weapons.

This post appeared first on cnn.com
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Editor’s Picks: Platinum Hits 11 Year High, Expert Touts Silver’s Bullish Future

It was a week of downward momentum for the gold price.

The yellow metal neared the US$3,400 per ounce level on Monday (June 23) as investors reacted to the weekend’s escalation in tensions in the Middle East, but sank to just above US$3,300 the next day.

The decline came as US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire. While the ceasefire has not gone entirely smoothly, with Trump expressing displeasure about violations, the news appeared to calm investors.

Gold’s safe-haven appeal took another hit toward the end of the week, when Trump said late on Thursday (June 26) that the US had signed a trade deal with China. Although details remain scarce — China’s commerce ministry confirmed the arrangement, but said little else — the gold price dropped on the news, closing Friday (June 27) at about US$3,274.

It was a different story for other precious metals this week.

Silver enjoyed an uptick, rising as high as US$36.79 per ounce before pulling back to the US$36 level. Whether it can continue breaking higher remains to be seen, but many experts are optimistic.

In fact, Randy Smallwood of Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX:WPM,NYSE:WPM) said that right now he’s perhaps more excited about silver than he is about gold. Here’s how he explained it:

There’s not a lot of new production coming on stream, just because most silver comes as a by-product from lead, zinc and copper mines — more than half of silver. And we’re just not seeing the investment into the base metals space that we need to sustain that production and grow that production.

As excited as I am about gold, I think silver’s got a few more fundamentals behind it that make it a pretty exciting time to be watching silver … silver’s got some catching up to do with respect to what gold’s done over the last few years.’

Watch the full interview with Smallwood for more on silver, as well as gold and platinum.

Speaking of platinum, it was also on the move this week, rising above US$1,400 per ounce.

The move has turned heads — despite a persistent supply deficit, platinum has spent years trading in a fairly tight range, and it hasn’t crossed US$1,400 since 2014.

Recent trends supporting platinum’s move include a shift toward platinum jewelry due to the high cost of gold, as well as larger platinum imports to the US earlier this year when tariff uncertainty was heating up. At the same time, miners have faced challenges.

‘This has led to tight forward market conditions,’ said Jonathan Butler of Mitsubishi (TSE:8058), ‘with a deep backwardation across the curve.’ In his view, these conditions will continue providing support for the precious metal in the coming weeks.

Bullet briefing — Gold repatriation, Rule Symposium

Germany, Italy to repatriate gold?

Germany and Italy are facing calls to bring home gold stored in the US.

According to the Financial Times, politicians and economists in the two countries are pushing for repatriation as a result of global geopolitical uncertainty, as well as concerns about Trump’s potential influence on the Federal Reserve as he continues to criticize Chair Jerome Powell.

‘We are very concerned about Trump tampering with the Federal Reserve Bank’s independence. Our recommendation is to bring the (German and Italian) gold home to ensure European central banks have unlimited control over it at any given point in time’ — Michael Jäger, Taxpayers Association of Europe

The news outlet calculates that German and Italian gold held in the US has a total value of about US$245 billion. Market participants agree that it would be a blow to relations with America if the countries were to bring their gold home at this time.

At least for now they seem unlikely to do so — although Italy’s central bank hasn’t commented, Germany’s Bundesbank said it sees the New York Fed as ‘trustworthy and reliable.’

Send your questions for the Rule Symposium

The Rule Symposium runs in Boca Raton, Florida, from July 7 to 11, and I’ll be heading there to interview Rick Rule, as well as Adrian Day, Lobo Tiggre, Andy Schectman, Dr. Nomi Prins and more.

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

This post appeared first on investingnews.com
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