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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not hold back Thursday morning, slamming the legacy media during a fiery Pentagon press conference. He said their hatred for President Donald Trump was driving their coverage of last weekend’s U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “Because you cheer against Trump so hard, in your DNA and in your blood, cheer against Trump because you want him not to be successful so bad, you have to cheer against the efficacy” of the strikes.

The Trump administration is fighting back hard against the “fake news” media following CNN’s reckless and misleading report late Tuesday that claimed the U.S. strikes on three of Iran’s key nuclear sites only set the theocratic regime’s nuclear program back by a few months. Anonymous officials had leaked a preliminary “low confidence” assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency to CNN reporters.

Sources told The New York Post that the DIA assessment, which had been labeled “top secret,” was “compiled on Sunday without input from other intelligence agencies. … That suggests the report authors did not use CIA or other assets inside Iran to verify the extent of the damage nor rely on audio or online communications that may have been intercepted by the National Security Agency.”

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June 26, 2025—Hundreds of ordinary citizens, members of religious and ethnic minorities, activists, and others are being rounded up and arrested in Iran as the Islamic Republic, facing its most serious challenge to date, moves to stamp out any trace of dissent and reassert its control.

Key Developments:

  • Over 700 individuals have been arrested across Iran in the past 12 days, with many hundreds more detained in Tehran. Checkpoints are set up in many cities to aid in arrests.
  • Six executions on espionage charges have been carried out just since the war began, with additional death sentences expected.
  • Detainees are being subjected to fast-tracked trials in kangaroo courts without lawyers or due process.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) calls on the Trump administration to forcefully raise these grave human rights violations in the upcoming negotiations with Iran and warn the Iranian authorities to immediately cease the domestic crackdown on its people.

“Like a wounded animal, the Islamic Republic is going after every perceived threat in the country with deadly force,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.

“And true to form, the Iranian authorities are locking people up incommunicado without cause or access to a lawyer, and sending them to the gallows on ‘national security’ charges in order to terrorize the public and reestablish control,” Ghaemi said.

In just 12 days of war between Iran and Israel, at least 700 people in cities across Iran have been arrested for alleged collaboration with Israel, according to Iran’s Fars News Agency (126 in Kermanshah, 76 in Isfahan, 62 in Khuzestan, 53 in Fars, and 49 in Lorestan)—while CHRI has received credible reports of additional hundreds—if not more than a thousand—being rounded up and arrested inside Tehran, the capital.

Executions have already begun. Since the war’s outbreak, six individuals have been hanged on espionage charges—three in just the past few days. Two others were executed on the same charges shortly before the conflict began. More are expected to swiftly follow.

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In his first remarks since the ceasefire between Iran and Israel went in to effect, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared “victory over the U.S. regime” and “the fallacious Zionist regime.”

“I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime,” Khamenei, whose exact whereabouts still remain unknown, stated on X Thursday. The Supreme Leader had been holed up in a secret location or bunker since June 13, 2025, due to security concerns. He is reportedly being protected by a special forces unit of the Revolutionary Guards.

“With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic,” he added.

Israel obliterated Iranian nuclear and military facilities, and assassinated high-profile security, intelligence and military figures, as well as nuclear scientists during the 12-day war.

The majority of the ballistic missiles Iran fired into Israeli towns and cities were intercepted and the few that landed destroyed apartment buildings and other mostly civilian sites. Only five out of the 50 to 60 impacts struck military or energy infrastructure facilities, according to an Institute For the Study of War (ISW) report.

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Ohio GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno will introduce a resolution on Wednesday calling on the Senate to formally nominate President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

This comes after the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, prompted by Trump

“President Trump just pulled off what neocons and Democrat globalists have failed to do for decades: peace in the Middle East with Iran’s nuclear arsenal decimated – all with no American boots on the ground, American casualties, or injuries,” Moreno said in a statement.

“President Trump is delivering exactly what he promised, the era of regime change and Forever wars abroad is over. Now it’s time for the world to recognize the obvious truth and award him the Nobel Peace Prize,” he added.

The Nobel Peace Prize recognizes individuals and organizations that have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” This was outlined in Alfred Nobel’s will.

In Moreno’s resolution, he outlined the fact that former Democratic President Barack Obama was awarded the prize for his alleged ‘‘extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” However, this included the deaths of thousands of people, something that should have disqualified him from receiving the prize, Moreno noted.

<b>WH Shares Israel Atomic Energy Commission's Assessment on Iran's Nuclear Facilities Following US Strikes</b>- <i> townhall.com</i>

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The White House distributed a statement to reporters on Wednesday from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission giving their assessment of the damage U.S. strikes inflicted on key Iranian nuclear facilities.

“The devastating US strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable,” the IAEC statement reads.

Iran’s nuclear weapons program has now been set back “by many years” following U.S. and Israeli strikes, the statement added.

“We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” IAEC said. “The achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.”

The statement comes after CNN reported that U.S. strikes against three of Iran’s nuclear sites did not destroy the nation’s nuclear program—a claim fiercely disputed by the administration.

“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt 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.”

<b>After Trump’s historic Iran-Israel truce, do ceasefires really bring peace?</b>- <i> www.foxnews.com</i>

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump brokered an historic ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran on Monday, marking a dramatic pause in the most significant military confrontation between the two foes.

The Monday evening announcement took effect 12 hours later, following a timeline designed to allow final military maneuvers on both sides. However, a barrage of Iranian missile fire in the hours that followed left many Israelis questioning whether the truce had already been violated.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, said such delayed implementation is not unusual. “It’s hard to turn things off on a switch. You have aircraft in flight. You have forces in position,” he explained.

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Watch out for mosquitoes!

China has just unveiled a new “mosquito drone” created for covert military operations.

The drone, which is the size and shape of a mosquito, contains cameras, microphones, and electronic signals.

The National University of Defense Technology engineered the new drone and released a video of it in action.

WATCH:

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Deep beneath Earth’s surface, hot mantle rock slowly rises, fueling massive volcanic activity, tearing continents apart, and opening new oceans. But where these upwellings form, what they’re made of, and how shifting tectonic plates shape them still remains a puzzle.

The Afar region in East Africa is a rare geological crossroads—a triple rift zone where three tectonic plates are pulling away from each other. Scientists think a rising plume of hot mantle lies below it, offering a unique chance to study how such forces reshape our planet from the inside out.

Deep under Africa, scientists from the University of Southampton have found that hot mantle rock is rising in steady pulses—almost like the Earth has a beating heart. This hot material is pushing up beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, slowly pulling the continent apart and setting the stage for a brand-new ocean.

The research shows that this rising heat is shaped by the movement of tectonic plates—huge slabs of Earth’s crust that float above the mantle. As these plates stretch and thin over time, especially at places like Afar where three rifts meet, they eventually split. That split is how a new ocean begins to form.

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The recent Israeli and American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities have been “extremely successful” in significantly delaying Iran’s nuclear program, according to Robert Greenway, a former senior intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency’s U.S. Central Command.

Greenway, who also served as a senior director for the National Security Council and principal architect of the Abraham Accords during President Donald Trump’s first term, questioned leaked intelligence assessments suggesting limited damage.

Speaking to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo today, Greenway said the Israeli and U.S. operations damaged Iran’s most protected facilities and left the country with no meaningful air defenses.

“The United States and Israel enjoy complete freedom of action in the air over Iran,” Greenway said on “Mornings with Maria,” emphasizing that Iran “has no air defenses to speak of and no air force.”

Greenway expressed optimism that the weakened Iranian position creates favorable conditions for expanding the Abraham Accords, potentially including Saudi Arabia, and represents a fundamental shift in regional power dynamics.

He also suggested the strikes send important signals to other U.S. adversaries like Russia and China, particularly through renewed American influence over global energy markets.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called for China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important trade routes for crude oil in the world.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said in an interview on Fox News. China is Iran’s most important oil customer and maintains friendly relations with the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s foreign minister warned earlier Sunday that the Islamic Republic “reserves all options to defend its sovereignty,” after the U.S. bombed three key nuclear sites over the weekend.

Iranian state-owned media, meanwhile, reported that Iran’s parliament backed closing the Strait of Hormuz, citing a senior lawmaker. However, the final decision to close the strait lies with Iran’s national security council, according to the report.

An attempt to block the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman could have profound consequences for the global economy. Some 20 million barrels per day of crude oil, or 20% of global consumption, flowed through the strait in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration.