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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Thursday that American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were a success, backing President Donald Trump and berating the media for covering an intelligence report that questioned the results of the operation.American B-2 bombers hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last weekend, while a guided missile submarine struck a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles.”President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating — choose your word — obliterating, destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Hegseth told journalists at the Pentagon, referring to a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran.Trump has called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites.On Thursday, he insisted that Iran did not manage to move nuclear materials — including enriched uranium — ahead of the US military action.”Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.However, US media revealed a preliminary American intelligence assessment earlier this week that said the strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months — coverage sharply criticized by Hegseth.”Whether it’s fake news CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times, there’s been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.”The document was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful,” Hegseth said.Trump has also lashed out at coverage of the intelligence report, calling for journalists to lose their jobs.- ‘Get a big shovel’ -Hegseth did not definitively state that the enriched uranium and centrifuges at the heart of Iran’s controversial nuclear program had been wiped out, but cited intelligence officials — although giving little detail — as saying the nuclear facilities were destroyed.”If you want to know what’s going on at Fordo, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one’s under there right now,” Hegseth said, referring to the deep-underground nuclear site.Among the officials cited by Hegseth was US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said the previous day that “Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed.”He also referred to a statement by CIA chief John Ratcliffe that said: “A body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes.”Ratcliffe pointed to a “historically reliable and accurate” source of information indicating that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, speaking Thursday on French radio, meanwhile said Iran’s uranium-enriching centrifuges had been knocked out.”Given power of these (bombs) and the characteristics of a centrifuge, we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational,” Grossi said.Israel launched an unprecedented air campaign targeting Iranian nuclear sites, scientists and top military brass on June 13 in a bid to end the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to take military action.The US operation was massive, involving more than 125 US aircraft including stealth bombers, fighters and aerial refueling tankers as well as a guided missile submarine.

Cristiano Ronaldo inked a two-year extension with Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr, the club announced Thursday, following months of speculation over which team he would sign for next season.”Cristiano Ronaldo is staying at @AlNassrFC until 2027,” the club wrote in a post on X.  Minutes before the official confirmation, the team posted a teaser video, with the 40-year-old Ronaldo walking along a beachfront and saying: “Al Nassr forever”. The Portuguese superstar arrived in 2023 in the kingdom to play with the club, heralding a rush of players in the latter stages of their careers to the oil-rich country.Last month, Ronaldo posted “This chapter is over” hours after the Saudi Pro League wrapped up with Al Nassr finishing third and trophyless once again. “Ronaldo’s presence is a key factor in developing the Saudi league in the last two years and a half. He opens the door for elite and young players to come to Saudi Arabia,” a source from the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a major investor in Saudi football, told AFP last month.The oil-funded PIF, the sovereign wealth fund behind a number of big-ticket Saudi investments, controls a group of Pro League clubs including Al Nassr, Al Hilal and Al Ahli.Ronaldo’s announcement in May came just months after Brazilian star Neymar ended his injury-plagued 18-month stay in January, after playing just seven times for Al Hilal — on a reported salary of around $104 million a year.Although Ronaldo was the Pro League’s top scorer with 25 goals, he has been unable to win a Saudi or continental trophy with Al Nassr, who lost in the Asian Champions League semi-finals last month.Last year, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner said he could end his career with Al Nassr, the Riyadh team favoured by a number of Saudi royals.Saudi Arabia has shaken up football by spending heavily on stars from Europe, starting with Ronaldo’s move in late 2022, and the desert nation will host the World Cup in 2034.For the past two years, Saudi football fans could watch the likes of Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, with six Ballons d’Or between them, on any given weekend during the football season in the kingdom.However, the oil-fuelled Saudi football project has drawn comparisons with the Chinese Super League, which imported players on exorbitant salaries until team owners went bust as the Chinese economy fizzled.But with Saudi Arabia set to host the 2034 World Cup, and desperate to re-model itself as a tourism and business magnet before global oil demand falls for good, there is probably more to come from the Pro League.Ronaldo appeared to trade an end-of-career payday for football obscurity when he first moved to Riyadh’s Al Nassr two years ago in a deal said to be worth $250 million at the time.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday became the most prominent European leader to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide”, as rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory said Israeli forces killed 56 people.After more than 20 months of devastating conflict, rights groups say Gaza’s population of more than two million face famine-like conditions.Israel began allowing supplies to trickle in at the end of May following a blockade of more than two months, but distribution has been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations.Israel meanwhile is pressing its bombardment of the territory, in a military offensive it says is aimed at defeating militant group Hamas — whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.Spain’s Sanchez said Gaza was in a “catastrophic situation of genocide” and urged the European Union to immediately suspend its cooperation deal with Israel.The comments represent the strongest condemnation to date by Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s offensive who is one of the first European leaders, and the most senior, to use the term “genocide” to describe the situation in Gaza.Speaking ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Sanchez mentioned an EU report which found “indications” Israel was breaching its rights obligations under the cooperation deal, which forms the basis for trade ties.The text cited Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory, the high number of civilian casualties, attacks on journalists and the massive displacement and destruction caused by the war.The spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, Mahmud Bassal, said Israeli forces killed 56 people on Thursday, including six who were waiting for aid in two separate locations.The Israeli military said its troops had “fired warning shots” in order to prevent “suspects from approaching them” near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, where Palestinians gather each night for rations.- ‘Only two girls survived’ -Israel began its Gaza offensive to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages seized by militants during the October 7, 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 56,259 people, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.AFP footage from a hospital in central Gaza on Wednesday showed Palestinians sobbing over bloodied body bags containing their loved ones who had been killed in an Israeli strike.”They (killed) the father, mother and brothers, only two girls survived. One of them is a baby girl aged one year and two months and the other one is five years old,” one mourner said.Beyond daily bombardment, Gaza’s health ministry says that since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near aid centres while seeking scarce supplies.The United Nations has condemned the “weaponisation of food” in Gaza, and slammed a US- and Israeli-backed body that has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations there.The privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was brought into the territory in late May, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes, deaths and neutrality concerns.The GHF denies deadly incidents have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points.Israeli restrictions on media in Gaza and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the territory.- Ceasefire push -US President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that “I think great progress is being made on Gaza” to end the Israel-Hamas war.He linked his optimism about imminent “very good news” to a ceasefire agreed Tuesday between Israel and Hamas’s backer Iran to end their 12-day war.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 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.Key mediator Qatar said this week it would launch a new push for a ceasefire.Hamas official Taher al-Nunu on Wednesday said talks with mediators had “intensified” but said the group had “not yet received any new proposals” to end the war.Israel declined to comment on any new ceasefire talks beyond saying efforts to return Israeli hostages in Gaza were ongoing “on the battlefield and via negotiations”.Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the Hamas attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Iranian body tasked with vetting legislation approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday, citing recent US and Israeli strikes.Iranian lawmakers voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday, a day after a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Israel that saw Israeli and US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.Since the start of the war on June 13, Iranian officials have sharply criticised the International Atomic Energy Agency for failing to condemn the strikes. Iran has also criticised the watchdog for passing a resolution on June 12 accusing it of non-compliance with its nuclear obligations.Iranian officials say the censure motion was “one of the main excuses” for the Israeli and US attacks. “The government is required to suspend all cooperation with the IAEA to ensure full respect for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Guardian Council spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif told the official IRNA news agency. He said the move was prompted by the “attacks… by the Zionist regime and the United States against peaceful nuclear facilities.”The bill, which will now be submitted to President Masoud Pezeshkian for final ratification, would allow Iran “to benefit from all the entitlements specified under… the Non-Proliferation Treaty especially with regard to uranium enrichment,” Nazif said. Key Tehran ally Moscow had earlier spoken out against the move to suspend coooperation with the IAEA.”We are interested in continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, so that everybody respects Iran’s repeated statements that Iran does not have and will not have plans to develop a nuclear weapon,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a post on X that cooperation with the watchdog was “not possible” at this time until security at Iran’s nuclear facilities “is ensured.” Israel launched a major bombing campaign on June 13 that targeted Iranian nuclear and military facilities and killed top scientists and commanders.On Sunday, Israel’s ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on Tuesday. 

Germany on Thursday urged Iran to keep working with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, labelling a vote by Iranian lawmakers to halt cooperation with the IAEA “a totally wrong signal”.Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told journalists that Germany “urges the Iranian government not to go down this path”.Wadephul’s comments came a day after the vote in Iran’s parliament, and following a 12-day war that saw Israeli and US strikes on nuclear facilities.According to Iranian state TV, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the International Atomic Energy Agency “refused to even marginally condemn the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities” and had “put its international credibility up for auction”.The decision of the Iranian parliament still requires the approval of Iran’s Guardian Council, a body empowered to vet legislation.Wadephul also said there were “hopeful signs” of US-Iran talks after President Donald Trump said they would take place next week.”We are directing all our diplomatic efforts towards finding a binding agreement as soon as possible,” Wadephul said, during a joint news conference with his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand.He added that the so-called E3 grouping of Britain, France and Germany would “play a central role” in any talks and that “Iran expressly wants a European component”.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of NATO countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending.Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science.The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes.It is also being held the day after a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy US President Donald Trump.Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight.China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although Western governments say its close ties have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov painted a bleak picture of a world seeing “worsening geopolitical tensions” when he addressed his counterparts at the meeting.”The current military and political situation in the world remains difficult and shows signs of further deterioration,” he said, according to a Russian defence ministry statement.His Chinese counterpart Dong Jun also framed Thursday’s meeting in Qingdao, home to a major Chinese naval base, as a counterweight to a world “marked by intertwined turmoil and changes”.”It is all the more important for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to play its role as an anchor of stability,” he said, according to state news agency Xinhua.- Backing for Iran? -Recent fighting between Israel, Iran and the United States was also likely discussed in Qingdao.Beijing refrained from offering anything more than diplomatic support to its close partner Tehran throughout that conflict, reflecting its limited leverage in the region and reluctance to worsen relations with the United States. “Public backing for Iran will come in the form of words, rather than deeds,” James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told AFP.”Other than condemning the US strikes on Iran, Beijing can be expected to continue treading cautiously in the Middle East’s security issues and would not want to be dragged into the region’s security challenges,” he said.Iran’s defence minister will likely “discuss with China the supply of weapons but I doubt China would agree”, said Andrea Ghiselli, an expert in China foreign policy and a lecturer at Exeter University.”It would be seen as provocative by both Israel… and, even more important for China, the US, with which Beijing is trying to stabilise relations,” Ghiselli said.India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also in attendance in Qingdao, said SCO members should “collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges”.”The world we live in is undergoing a drastic transformation. Globalisation, which once brought us closer together, has been losing momentum,” he said in comments his office posted on social media.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to hold a news conference on Thursday to offer a fresh assessment of strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, following a stinging row over how much American bombardment set back Tehran’s nuclear program.After waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites and retaliatory missile fire from Iran since June 13, the United States bombed three key Iranian atomic facilities at the weekend.The extent of the damage in Iran, where Israel said it had acted to stop an imminent nuclear threat, has become the subject of profound disagreement in the United States.An initial classified assessment, first reported by CNN, was said to have concluded that the strike did not destroy key components and that Iran’s nuclear program was set back only months at most.Another key question raised by experts is whether Iran, preparing for the strike, moved out some 400 kilogram (880 pounds) of enriched uranium — which could now be hidden elsewhere in the vast country.The US administration has hit back furiously, with Trump repeatedly saying the attack “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, including the key site of Fordo buried inside a mountain.”I can tell you, the United States had no indication that that enriched uranium was moved prior to the strikes, as I also saw falsely reported,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News.”As for what’s on the ground right now, it’s buried under miles and miles of rubble because of the success of these strikes on Saturday evening,” she said.Trump said that Hegseth, whom he dubbed “war” secretary, would hold a news conference at 8 am (1200 GMT) on Thursday to “fight for the dignity of our great American pilots”.CIA chief John Ratcliffe said in a statement on Wednesday that “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years”.The Israeli military said it had delivered a “significant” blow to Iran’s nuclear sites but that it was “still early” to fully assess the damage.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.”And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he said.- Nuclear talks? -Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told Al Jazeera that “nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure”.After the war derailed nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, Trump said Washington would hold discussions with Tehran next week, with his special envoy Steve Witkoff expressing hope “for a comprehensive peace agreement”.Trump told reporters that Israel and Iran were “both tired, exhausted”, before going on to say that talks were planned with Iran next week.”We may sign an agreement. I don’t know,” he added.Iran has systematically denied seeking a nuclear weapon while defending its “legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic energy.It has also said it was willing to return to nuclear negotiations with Washington.In both Iran and Israel, authorities have gradually lifted wartime restrictions.Iran on Wednesday reopened the airspace over the country’s east, without allowing yet flights to and from the capital Tehran.In the Israeli coastal hub of Tel Aviv, 45-year-old engineer Yossi Bin welcomed the ceasefire: “Finally, we can sleep peacefully. We feel better, less worried… and I hope it stays that way.”- State funeral -While Iran and Israel have been locked in a shadow war for decades, their 12-day conflict was by far the most destructive confrontation between them.The Israeli strikes on Iran killed at least 627 civilians, Tehran’s health ministry said.Iran’s attacks on Israel killed 28 people, according to official figures.According to Mehr news agency, the funeral of Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami, who was killed in an Israeli strike, will no longer be held in his hometown on Thursday.Instead, a state funeral will be held on Saturday in Tehran for top commanders including Salami and nuclear scientists killed in the war.burs-ami/ser