Pentagon leaders cite military tactics to show destruction from US attacks on Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon leaders laid out new details Thursday about military tactics and explosives to bolster their argument that U.S. attacks had destroyed key Iranian nuclear facilities, but little more emerged on how far back the bombing had set Tehran’s atomic program.
In a rare Pentagon news briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked to shift the debate from whether the nuclear targets were “obliterated,” as President Donald Trump has said, to what they portrayed as the heroism of the strikes as well as the extensive research and preparation that went into carrying them out.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Hegseth said in an often combative session with reporters.
It was the latest example of how Trump has marshaled top administration officials to defend his claims about the effectiveness of the U.S. strikes. At stake is the legacy of the Republican president’s intervention in the brief war between Israel and Iran, as well as the future of American foreign policy toward Iran.
Hegseth appeared less confident that the strikes got all of Iran’s highly enriched nuclear material.
Iran’s Khamenei resurfaces to warn against future US attacks in first statement since ceasefire
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that his country had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar and warned against further attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
Khamenei’s prerecorded speech that aired on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19, was filled with warnings and threats directed toward the United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic’s longtime adversaries.
The 86-year-old, a skilled orator known for his forceful addresses to the country’s more than 90 million people, appeared more tired than he had just a week ago, speaking in a hoarse voice and occasionally stumbling over his words.
The supreme leader downplayed U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites Sunday using bunker-buster bombs and cruise missiles, saying that U.S. President Donald Trump — who said the attack “completely and fully obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program — had exaggerated its impact.
“They could not achieve anything significant,” Khamenei said. Missing from his more than 10-minute video message was any mention of Iran’s nuclear program and the status of their facilities and centrifuges after extensive U.S. and Israeli strikes.
Senators diverge sharply on damage done by Iran strikes after classified briefing
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators emerged from a classified briefing Thursday with sharply diverging assessments of President Donald Trump’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites, with Republicans calling the mission a clear success and Democrats expressing deep skepticism.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came to Capitol Hill to give the classified briefings, originally scheduled for Tuesday.
Many Republicans left satisfied, though their assessments of how much Iran’s nuclear program was set back by the bombing varied. Sen. Tom Cotton said a “major blow” and “catastrophic damage” had been dealt to Iran’s facilities.
“Their operational capability was obliterated. There is nobody working there tonight. It was highly effective. There’s no reason to hit those sites anytime soon,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Democrats remained doubtful and criticized Trump for not giving Congress more information. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the briefing “raised more questions than it answered.”
States can block Medicaid money for health care at Planned Parenthood, the Supreme Court says
WASHINGTON (AP) — States can block the country’s biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The 6-3 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the rest of the court’s conservatives was not directly about abortion, but it comes as Republicans back a wider push across the country to defund the organization. It closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary court path to keeping Medicaid funding in place: patient lawsuits.
The justices found that while Medicaid law allows people choose their own provider, that does not make it a right enforceable in court. The court split along ideological lines, with the three liberals dissenting in the case from South Carolina.
Public health care money generally cannot be used to pay for abortions, but Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for other needs in part because it can be difficult to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance, the organization has said.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, said Planned Parenthood should not get any taxpayer money. The budget bill backed by President Donald Trump in Congress would also cut Medicaid money for the group. That could force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal, Planned Parenthood has said.
Key Medicaid provision in Trump’s bill is found to violate Senate rules. The GOP is scrambling
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to the chamber’s procedural rules, delivering a crucial blow as Republicans rush to finish the package this week.
Guidance from the parliamentarian is rarely ignored and Republican leaders are now forced to consider difficult options. Republicans were counting on big cuts to Medicaid and other programs to offset trillions of dollars in Trump tax breaks, their top priority. Additionally, the parliamentarian, who is the Senate’s chief arbiter of its often complicated rules, advised against various GOP provisions barring certain immigrants from health care programs.
Republicans scrambled Thursday to respond, with some calling for challenging, or ever firing, the nonpartisan parliamentarian, who has been on the job since 2012, though GOP leaders dismissed those views. Instead, they worked to revise the various proposals.
“We have contingency plans,” said Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota.
Friday’s expected votes appeared to be slipping, but Thune insisted that “we’re plowing forward.”
Kennedy’s advisers back flu vaccination, but not shots with a rarely used preservative
ATLANTA (AP) — The Trump administration’s new vaccine advisers on Thursday endorsed this fall’s flu vaccinations for just about every American — but only if they use certain shots free of an ingredient antivaccine groups have falsely tied to autism.
What is normally a routine step in preparing for the upcoming flu season drew intense scrutiny after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the influential 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics.
The seven-member panel bucked another norm Thursday as it discussed the safety of a preservative used in less than 5% of U.S. flu vaccinations: It deliberated based only on a presentation from an antivaccine group’s former leader — without allowing the usual public airing of scientific data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The preservative, thimerosal, has long been used in certain vaccines that come in multi-dose vials, to prevent contamination as each dose is withdrawn. But it has been controversial because it contains a small amount of a particular form of mercury.
Study after study has found no evidence that thimerosal causes autism or other harm. Yet since 2001, all vaccines routinely used for U.S. children age 6 years or younger have come in thimerosal-free formulas — including single-dose flu shots that account for the vast majority of influenza vaccinations.
Justice Department says it intends to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on smuggling charges
The Justice Department said Thursday that it intends to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia on federal smuggling charges in Tennessee before it moves to deport him to a country that is not his native El Salvador.
“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press.
Gilmartin made the statement hours after a federal prosecutor told a federal judge in Maryland that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a “third country” that isn’t El Salvador. But Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans.
Guynn acknowledged the government’s plans during a hastily planned conference call with Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Greenbelt, Maryland. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had filed an emergency request for Xinis to order the government to take Abrego Garcia to Maryland when he is released in Tennessee, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before he stands trial.
“We have concerns that the government may try to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia quickly over the weekend, something like that,” one of his attorneys, Jonathan Cooper, told Xinis on the call.
Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary turned acclaimed TV journalist, dead at 91
NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists, masterfully using a visual medium to illuminate a world of ideas, died Thursday at age 91.
Moyers died in a New York City hospital, according to longtime friend Tom Johnson, the former CEO of CNN and an assistant to Moyers during Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Moyers’ son William said his father died at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York after a “long illness.”
Moyers’ career ranged from youthful Baptist minister to deputy director of the Peace Corps, from Johnson’s press secretary to newspaper publisher, senior news analyst for “The CBS Evening News” and chief correspondent for “CBS Reports.”
But it was for public television that Moyers produced some of TV’s most cerebral and provocative series. In hundreds of hours of PBS programs, he proved at home with subjects ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse.
In 1988, Moyers produced “The Secret Government” about the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration and simultaneously published a book under the same name. Around that time, he galvanized viewers with “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth,” a series of six one-hour interviews with the prominent religious scholar. The accompanying book became a best-seller.
Prosecutor tells jury ‘it’s time’ to convict Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as sex trafficking trial near end
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs “committed crime after crime” but thought his “fame, wealth and power” put him above the law, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday as the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial shifted to closing arguments.
“That ends now,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said. “It’s time to find the defendant guilty.”
Combs, 55, sat with his head down as Slavik highlighted testimony and evidence from the seven-week trial that she said proved sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other charges. Wearing a sweater and khakis, he sometimes scribbled notes to his lawyers and shook his head as Slavik played one of his audio messages for the jury.
“Over the last several weeks, you’ve learned a lot about Sean Combs,” Slavik said as she launched into her nearly five-hour presentation. “He’s the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn’t take no for an answer. And now you know about many crimes he committed with members of his enterprise.”
Among the proof, Slavik argued, was evidence that Combs kidnapped one of his employees, was involved in setting rapper Kid Cudi’s convertible ablaze, engaged in forced labor, bribed a hotel guard and carried out “brutal crimes at the heart of this case.”
These Canadian rocks may be the oldest on Earth
NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have identified what could be the oldest rocks on Earth from a rock formation in Canada.
The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has long been known for its ancient rocks — plains of streaked gray stone on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec. But researchers disagree on exactly how old they are.
Work from two decades ago suggested the rocks could be 4.3 billion years old, placing them in the earliest period of Earth’s history. But other scientists using a different dating method contested the finding, arguing that long-ago contaminants were skewing the rocks’ age and that they were actually slightly younger at 3.8 billion years old.
In the new study, researchers sampled a different section of rock from the belt and estimated its age using the previous two dating techniques — measuring how one radioactive element decays into another over time. The result: The rocks were about 4.16 billion years old.
The different methods “gave exactly the same age,” said study author Jonathan O’Neil with the University of Ottawa.
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