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Iran: Nuclear Programme Hit Hard, But Enrichment Will Continue
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said Tehran cannot abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which suffered heavy damage during last month’s Israel-Iran war, in an interview with Fox News.
Prior to the war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks mediated by Oman but could not agree on the extent to which Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium.
Israel and Washington say Iran was close to enriching to levels that would allow it to quickly produce a nuclear weapon, while Tehran says its enrichment programme is for civilian purposes only.
What Did He Say?
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up (on) enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the foreign minister told the Fox News show “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Monday.
The foreign minister said the damage to the nuclear facilities in Iran after US and Israeli strikes was serious and was being evaluated further.
Araghchi also said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was in “good health” and that Tehran was open to talks with Washington but that those will not be direct “for the time being.”
Context
US ally Israel attacked Iran on June 13 and the Middle Eastern rivals then engaged in an air war for 12 days in which Washington also bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. A ceasefire was reached in late June.
Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.N. nuclear watchdog says it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons programme in Iran. Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is solely meant for civilian purposes.
Israel is the only Middle Eastern country believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
(With inputs from Reuters)
US Releases 240,000 Pages On Martin Luther King Jr’s Assassination
The US Justice Department on Monday made public over 240,000 pages of documents linked to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., including FBI files that reveal surveillance efforts aimed at discrediting the Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights leader and his movement.
Files were posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released.
‘Abuse And Overreach’
King died of an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump’s administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former President John F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1963.
Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy’s death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King.
The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s – even wiretapping his phones – because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of “abuse and overreach” in its history.
‘Must Honour His Sacrifice’
The civil rights leader’s family asked those who engage with the files to “do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief,” and condemned “any attempts to misuse these documents”.
“Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realization of his dream – a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality,” they said in a statement.
“During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said, referring to the then-FBI director.
James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998.
King’s family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding “that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme. The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs”.
Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC’s Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Ukraine, Russia To Resume Peace Talks In Turkiye After 7 Weeks
Ukraine and Russia are set to hold peace talks in Turkiye on Wednesday — the first in seven weeks — according to a senior Kyiv official quoted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday.
Zelenskyy appealed earlier in the day for greater momentum in negotiations.
‘Diametrically Opposed’
Russia’s state TASS news agency quoted a source in Turkiye as saying the talks would take place on Wednesday. The RIA news agency, also quoting a source, said they would take place over two days, Thursday and Friday.
The Kremlin said it was waiting for confirmation of the date of the talks but said the two sides were “diametrically opposed” in their positions on how to end the war.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that he spoke with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, on Monday in preparation for a prisoner exchange and another meeting with Russia in Turkiye.
“Umerov reported that the meeting is planned for Wednesday. More details will follow tomorrow,” Zelenskyy said.
Umerov, previously defence minister, was appointed to his current role last week and headed the first two rounds of talks with Russia.
Ongoing Attacks
Ukraine has backed US calls for an immediate ceasefire. Moscow says certain arrangements must be put in place before a ceasefire can be introduced.
Russian forces have launched sustained attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, including missiles and hundreds of drones on Monday night that killed two people and injured 15. Ukraine has also launched long-range drone attacks.
Zelenskyy said: “The agenda from our side is clear: the return of prisoners of war, the return of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a leaders’ meeting.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is under increasing pressure from US President Donald Trump to show progress towards ending the conflict, turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskyy to meet him in person.
Putin has said he does not see Zelenskyy as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when his five-year mandate expired last year.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “There is our draft memorandum, there is a draft memorandum that has been handed over by the Ukrainian side. There is to be an exchange of views and talks on these two drafts, which are diametrically opposed so far.”
No Ceasefire Breakthrough
Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul, on May 16 and June 2, that led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers.
But the two sides have made no breakthrough towards a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three and a half years of war. The Kremlin says Ukraine must abandon four regions Moscow says have been incorporated into Russia.
Trump said last week he would impose new sanctions in 50 days on Russia and countries that buy its exports if there is no deal before then to end the conflict.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking in Kyiv after talks with Zelenskyy, noted Russia’s refusal to implement an immediate ceasefire as well as its “maximalist” demands.
“Discussions must begin, but on a basis that respects the interests of both parties, because diplomacy is not submission,” he told a news conference. “And diplomacy begins with meetings at the level of heads of state and government, something Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for.”
Barrot said he favoured devising an even tougher sanctions package if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Mass Cyberattack Targets Microsoft Servers Worldwide
A widespread cyber espionage campaign targeting Microsoft server software has compromised around 100 organisations as of the weekend, according to two groups involved in uncovering the operation.
Microsoft on Saturday issued an alert about “active attacks” on self-hosted SharePoint servers, which are widely used by organizations to share documents and collaborate within organisations. SharePoint instances run off of Microsoft servers were unaffected.
Dubbed a “zero-day” because it leverages a previously undisclosed digital weakness, the hacks allow spies to penetrate vulnerable servers and potentially drop a backdoor to secure continuous access to victim organizations.
‘Unambiguous’
Vaisha Bernard, the chief hacker at Eye Security, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm, which discovered the hacking campaign, targeting one of its clients on Friday, said that an internet scan carried out with the Shadowserver Foundation had uncovered nearly 100 victims altogether – and that was before the technique behind the hack was widely known.
“It’s unambiguous,” Bernard said. “Who knows what other adversaries have done since to place other backdoors.”
He declined to identify the affected organizations, saying that the relevant national authorities had been notified.
The Shadowserver Foundation confirmed the 100 figure and said that most of those affected were in the United States and Germany and that the victims included government organizations.
Another researcher said that, so far, the spying appeared to be the work of a single hacker or set of hackers.
“It’s possible that this will quickly change,” said Rafe Pilling, director of Threat Intelligence at Sophos, a British cybersecurity firm.
Microsoft said it had “provided security updates and encourages customers to install them,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Who’s Behind This?
It was not clear who was behind the ongoing hack. The FBI said on Sunday it was aware of the attacks and was working closely with its federal and private-sector partners, but offered no other details.
Britain’s National Cyber Security Center said in a statement, that it was aware of “a limited number” of targets in the United Kingdom. A researcher tracking the campaign said that the campaign appeared initially aimed at a narrow set of government-related organizations.
The pool of potential targets remains vast. According to data from Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment, over 8,000 servers online could theoretically have already been compromised by hackers.
Those servers include major industrial firms, banks, auditors, healthcare companies, and several US state-level and international government entities.
“The SharePoint incident appears to have created a broad level of compromise across a range of servers globally,” said Daniel Card of British cybersecurity consultancy, PwnDefend.
“Taking an assumed breach approach is wise, and it’s also important to understand that just applying the patch isn’t all that is required here.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
Russian TV Airs Footage Of Teenagers Assembling Drones At ‘World’s Largest Drone Factory’ To Strike Ukraine
A Russian facility, described by its director as the world’s largest producer of strike drones, was featured on the Russian army’s television channel showing teenagers involved in assembling kamikaze drones intended for use against Ukraine.
The footage, in a documentary film broadcast by the Zvezda channel on Sunday, showed hundreds of large black completed Geran-2 suicide drones in rows inside the secretive facility, which has been targeted by Ukrainian long-range drones.
Ukraine says Russia has used the Geran drones to terrorise and kill civilians in locations including the capital Kyiv, where residents often shelter in metro stations during attacks.
Russia says its drone and missile strikes target only military or military-related targets and denies deliberately targeting civilians, more than 13,000 of whom have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in 2022, the United Nations says.
Teenagers Making Drones
Zvezda said the Alabuga factory, in Russia’s Tatarstan region, invited school pupils to study at a college the factory runs nearby once they had completed ninth grade (aged 14-15) so that they could study drone manufacturing there and then work at the factory when they had finished college.
Young workers, including teenagers, were shown with their faces blurred out, studying computer screens or making and testing individual components, or assembling drones.
Timur Shagivaleyev, the factory’s general director, did not disclose detailed production figures. But he told Zvezda the initial plan had been to produce “several thousand Geran-2 drones” and that the factory was now producing nine times more than that. He did not say what period the figures referred to.
A Russian think tank close to the government last month suggested Russia’s drone production had jumped by 16.9% in May compared to the previous month after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up.
Putin said in April that more than 1.5 million drones of various types had been produced last year, but that Russian troops fighting on the front line in Ukraine needed more.
Huge-Scale Use Of Drones
Both sides have deployed drones on a huge scale, using them to spot and hit targets not only on the battlefield but way beyond the front lines.
Zvezda said the Alabuga factory had its own drone testing ground and showed rows of parked U.S. RAM pickup trucks carrying Geran-2 drones.
It also showed one of them launching a drone.
In May, Russia paraded combat drones that its forces use in the war in Ukraine on Moscow’s Red Square in what state TV said was a first.
The design of the Geran-2, which has a known range of at least 1,500 km (932 miles), originated in Iran where an earlier version was made. They have been used to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Zvezda set the documentary to upbeat music, part of its mission to keep Russians interested in and supportive of the war.
The factory is part of the so-called Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is near the town of Yelabuga, which is over 1,000 km from the border with Ukraine.
(With inputs from Reuters)
British F-35B Jet To Fly Out Of Kerala After 5-Week Stay
A British Royal Navy F-35B Lightning fighter jet, grounded at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, Kerala, since June 14, is now expected to fly out of India on Tuesday, July 22. The advanced stealth jet, one of the most modern in the UK’s fleet, had been forced to make an emergency landing after developing a technical snag while on its way to another destination.
The jet, valued at over $110 million, was brought down safely at the Thiruvananthapuram airport after reporting low fuel levels. Following its landing, airport authorities declared an emergency to ensure smooth handling of the situation. The aircraft was then towed from the tarmac to a hangar with the help of a British team that arrived soon after the incident.
Extended Stay, Repairs
Since then, several repair efforts were made to fix the issue. The jet remained inside the hangar of Air India, where it was kept under the care of aviation engineers flown in from the UK.
Over the past month, technicians worked to resolve the technical problem, and airport sources have now confirmed that the aircraft is ready for departure. The exact time of takeoff has not been disclosed due to security reasons.
Local Attraction
The extended stay of the fighter jet at the Indian airport has attracted attention, as such advanced military aircraft rarely remain grounded outside their home base for so long. During its stay, the aircraft incurred various operational charges, including landing fees, daily parking fees, and hangar rent.
The maintenance crew and the specialised equipment brought to India for the repairs will return separately on another flight after the jet takes off. Airport sources confirmed that final preparations are now underway and the aircraft has been moved out of the hangar in readiness for its flight.
This will mark the end of the aircraft’s over five-week-long unscheduled stop in India, following what appears to have been a rare technical fault in one of the world’s most sophisticated fighter jets.
Pakistani Islamist Militants Deploy Drones To Attack Security Forces: Officials
Islamist militants in Pakistan’s northwest have begun using commercial quadcopter drones to drop explosives on security personnel, police officials said, marking a potentially alarming shift in tactics in an already unstable region.
The use of such drones, which are powered by four rotors allowing for vertical take-off and landing, is worrying the overstretched and under-equipped police force, the frontline against militant attacks, officials said.
Two quadcopters sent by the militants targeted a police station earlier this month, killing a woman and injuring three children in a nearby house in Bannu district, said police officer Muhammad Anwar.
A drone spotted over another police station on Saturday was shot down with assault rifles, he said. It was armed with a mortar shell, he said.
At least eight such drone attacks have targeted police and security forces in Bannu and adjacent areas in the last two and a half months, he said.
Regional police chief Sajjad Khan said militants were still trying to master the use of the drones.
“The militants have acquired these modern tools, but they are in the process of experimentation and that’s why they can’t hit their targets accurately,” he added.
No Equipment To Counter Quadcopters
The militants are using the quadcopters to drop improvised explosive devices or mortar shells on their targets, five security officials said. They said these explosive devices were packed with ball bearings or pieces of iron.
Provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hameed said the police lacked resources to meet the new challenge.
“We do not have equipment to counter the drones,” he told the local Geo News channel on Sunday. “The militants are better equipped than we are,” he said.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the drone strikes.
The main militant group operating in the northwest is the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban. But they denied using the drones.
“We are trying to acquire this technology,” a TTP spokesman said.
In 2024, Islamist militants carried out 335 countrywide attacks, killing 520 people, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, an independent organisation.
In recent weeks, thousands of residents from the border region have staged protests, aimed against both the attacks by militants and what they fear is an offensive planned by the army, according to a statement issued by the demonstrators.
They said they feared that a military operation against the militants would displace them from their homes.
A sweeping operation against militants in 2014 was preceded by a forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents. They spent months, and in many cases years, away from their homes.
Pakistan’s army did not respond to a request for comment on whether an operation was planned.
(With inputs from Reuters)
UK, France, And Other Nations Urge Immediate End To Gaza Conflict
On Monday, Britain and over 20 other countries called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, voicing criticism of the Israeli government’s approach to delivering aid after hundreds of Palestinians were killed near food distribution sites.
France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark and other countries said more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid and condemned what it called the “drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians”.
The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, which the United States and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations.
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” the countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
‘Mass Deaths’ From Hunger
Gaza health officials have warned of potential “mass deaths” in coming days from hunger, which has killed at least 19 people since Saturday, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said.
The call for an end to the war in Gaza and the way Israel delivers aid comes from several countries which are allied with Israel and its most important backer, the United States.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led terrorists loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation.
The U.N. has called the GHF’s model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards, which GHF denies.
UNRWA, the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to Palestinians, said on X it was receiving desperate messages from Gaza warning of starvation, including from its own staff, as food prices have soared.
“Meanwhile, just outside Gaza, stockpiled in warehouses UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale,” it said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
EU Readies Retaliation As Hopes Fade For US Tariff Deal
The European Union is considering a wider range of counter-measures against the United States as hopes for a favourable trade deal with Washington diminish, EU diplomats said.
An increasing number of EU members, including Germany, are now considering using wide-ranging “anti-coercion” measures which would let the bloc target U.S. services and other sectors in the absence of a deal, diplomats say.
The European Commission, which negotiates trade agreements on behalf of the 27-member bloc, had appeared on course for an agreement in which the EU would still have faced a 10% U.S. tariff on most of its exports, with some concessions.
Dimming Hopes
Such hopes now seem dashed after President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 30% tariff by August 1, and following talks between EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and U.S. counterparts in Washington last week.
Sefcovic, who has said a 30% tariff would “practically prohibit” transatlantic trade, delivered a sober report on the current state of play to EU envoys on Friday, diplomats told Reuters.
U.S. counterparts had come up with diverging solutions during his meetings, including a baseline rate that could be well above 10%, the EU diplomats added.
“Each interlocutor seemed to have different ideas. No one can tell (Sefcovic) what would actually fly with Trump,” one diplomat said.
Prospects of easing or removing 50% U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium and 25% on cars and car parts appear limited.
‘Nuclear Option’
Washington has also rejected the EU’s demand for a “standstill” arrangement, whereby no further tariffs would be imposed after a deal is struck. The rationale, according to diplomats, is that Trump’s hands cannot be tied on national security, the basis of Section 232 trade investigations into pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and timber.
Accordingly, the mood has pivoted among EU countries, EU diplomats say, and they are more ready to react, even though a negotiated solution is their preferred option.
The EU has one package of tariffs on 21 billion euros ($24.5 billion) of U.S. goods that is currently suspended until August 6. The bloc must still decide on a further set of countermeasures on 72 billion euros of U.S. exports.
Discussions have also increased on using the EU’s wide-ranging “anti-coercion” instrument (ACI) that allows the bloc to retaliate against third countries that put economic pressure on member states to change their policies.
Brought in more with China in mind, it would allow the bloc to target U.S. services, limit U.S. companies’ access to public procurement or financial services markets or restrict U.S. investment.
France Backs Retaliation
France has consistently advocated using the ACI, but others have baulked at what some see as a nuclear option. Trump has warned he will retaliate if other countries take action against the United States.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a week ago that the ACI was created for extraordinary situations, adding: “We are not there yet.”
The Commission would need a qualified majority of 15 countries making up 65% of the EU population to invoke it. It would not do so unless it was confident of passing it, but there are now growing signs of support building, with Germany among the countries saying it should be considered, EU diplomats say. ($1 = 0.8590 euros)
(With inputs from Reuters)
‘Syria Faces Loss Of Sovereignty, Could Even Disintegrate’
“Nobody is interested in seeing Syria united and retaining its sovereignty because there is a lot of friction, lots of killing of minorities, it was the Alawites not long ago, and is the Druze now,” says Delhi-based Syrian journalist Dr Waiel Awwad.
Dr Awwad was a guest on The Gist, analysing the situation in his homeland seven months after the overthrow of the Bashar Assad regime by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a salafist-jihadist group that evolved from the Al Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra.
The HTS is backed by Turkey, he said and said it represents one of two “projects” currently underway in Syria. The other is by Israel which does not want to see an Islamist group in power in Damascus. The Jewish state’s military support for the ethnic Druze in recent fighting against Damascus-backed Bedouin tribes, signals its refusal to accept the HTS.
Israel is now demanding the creation of a demilitarized zone 65 km deep inside southern Syria, that includes the Golan Heights which has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 war, and formally annexed in 1981.
“I think the plan is to break Syria into a Druze state with the Alawites on the seaside (west) and the Kurdish forces in the north east,” Awwad said. The HTS is fighting back supporting the Bedouin tribes.
“It’s an open Pandora’s box and there will be lots of killing and Syria will disintegrate in no time. Also oil was discovered in the Golan in 2014 by an American compan, which means Israel on the pretext of protecting the Druze, will seek to control the oil fields.”
HTS leader and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa is feeling the heat. He hopes to reshape Syria into an Islamic emirate and has the backing of Turkey, also the 70,000 odd mercenaries who helped overthrow Assad.
The conflicting ambitions of the major powers in Syria point to one direction only: the likely emergence of a weak Syrian state at the mercy of Al Qaida affiliated fighters and of course Israel.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Dr Waiel Awwad, Delhi-based Syrian journalist.