Zelenskyy discussed war, Russia with UK's Starmer
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, noting their shared view on the threat posed...
U.S. President Donald Trump has likened American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the end of World War II, claiming the operation ended the Iran-Israel conflict despite intelligence assessments suggesting limited impact.
Speaking at a NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday, President Donald Trump defended the scale and effectiveness of recent U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, calling the damage “very severe” and comparing it to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"The intelligence was ... very inconclusive," Trump said during a joint appearance with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “It was very severe. It was obliteration.”
His remarks follow reports by Reuters and other media outlets that the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) believes the strikes may have set Iran’s nuclear programme back by only a few months.
Trump dismissed the report as preliminary and accused the media of undermining the military operation. “It was an attack against our pilots,” he said, referring to news coverage of the DIA’s assessment.
Trump claimed the operation brought an end to the hostilities between Iran and Israel, stating: “When you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, that ended a war, too. This ended a war in a different way.”
The president was joined at the summit by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Both echoed Trump’s scepticism of the intelligence community’s evaluation, with Hegseth calling the leaked DIA report “low-confidence” and “politically motivated”.
He also revealed that the FBI is investigating the source of the leak. Rubio, meanwhile, accused those who shared the report of mischaracterising its findings, saying: “This is the game they play.”
The Trump administration has long maintained that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. The strikes, though controversial, are being promoted by The White House as evidence of its firm stance.
Trump’s defence of the operation comes amid political pressure from some within his own base who argue that the strikes contradict his “America First” approach.
Still, the administration touted a diplomatic breakthrough at the summit, with NATO members agreeing to increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP — a goal the U.S. had pushed for.
In a final statement, Trump cited an Israeli Atomic Energy Commission report claiming Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been pushed back “many years”. He also confirmed that U.S. and Iranian officials are expected to meet next week, though he added that Tehran is unlikely to resume its nuclear programme after the strikes.
The world’s biggest dance music festival faces an unexpected setback as a fire destroys its main stage, prompting a last-minute response from organisers determined to keep the party alive in Boom, Belgium.
According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the Oaxaca region of Mexico on Saturday.
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will send an upgraded ‘version 3.0’ free-trade agreement to their heads of government for approval in October, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday after regional talks in Kuala Lumpur.
A resumption of Iraq’s Kurdish oil exports is not expected in the near term, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday, despite an announcement by Iraq’s federal government a day earlier stating that shipments would resume immediately.
Chinese automaker Chery has denied an industry-ministry audit that disqualified more than $53 million in state incentives for thousands of its electric and hybrid vehicles, insisting it followed official guidance and committed no fraud.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he had spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, noting their shared view on the threat posed by Russia’s attempt “to reduce everything to discussing the impossible.”
Russia’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev said on Saturday that certain countries would make “titanic efforts” to derail the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for 15 August.
U.S. President Donald Trump has invited newly inaugurated Polish President Karol Nawrocki to the White House for an official working meeting on 3 September, Nawrocki’s chief of cabinet announced on Saturday.
Thousands gathered in Nagasaki on Saturday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the city’s atomic bombing, with Mayor Shiro Suzuki warning that ongoing global conflicts risk bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war.
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