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Donald Trump is planning to "lie" to Congress, according to an ex-insider to the president.Lev Parnas, a former "trusted operative" to the U.S. president, recently flagged evidence of Trump's "cognitive decline."In a separate blog post on Thursday, Parnas wrote, "KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL — THE VOLCANO IS ABOUT TO ERUPT.""It’s been a nonstop 24 hours. I’ve been getting messages and updates through the night. Sources reaching out. Intel coming in from across the globe. And I’m telling you right now: something is happening," Parnas wrote. "Trump wants you distracted. Chasing headlines. But I’m asking you — keep your eye on the ball. Because the real story is unraveling right in front of us."Elaborating on what's happening, he said, "Overnight, Russia launched another heavy round of missile and drone attacks across Ukraine — targeting cities, hitting civilian infrastructure, killing innocent people.""But while the air raid sirens wailed, something else happened. A Russian delegation quietly left for Washington, D.C. I’ve been telling you for months, he’s not reacting to the news… he’s orchestrating it."This is all leading up to Trump lying to Congress about Iran, according to the ex-operative."Here’s what my sources are telling me — and you won’t hear this on CNN: Today, Trump’s Defense and Intel teams are supposed to brief the Senate. The next day, Congress.""But my sources say they’re going to stonewall," he added. "They will refuse to disclose the full scope of the mission. And the reason is simple: Because they can’t. And they won’t. There was no imminent threat. There was no legal justification. This was not a reactive strike — it was part of the larger choreography I’ve been telling you about."According to Parnas, "they know that once the details are made public, the entire narrative collapses.""That’s why the cover-up is already underway. As this unfolds, Netanyahu’s trial is set to begin Monday. His corruption case is back in court. He’s cornered. Just like Trump. Just like Putin. And they’re moving together because their fates are now linked," Parnas wrote Thursday. "And what does Trump do? Instead of owning the strike — instead of explaining the mission — he sends out Pete Hegseth to attack the media and distract from the truth."As part of his conclusion, Parnas also writes, "They’ll lie to Congress. They’ll hide the facts. They’ll flood the airwaves with noise."Read the full post here.

CNN Anchor Kate Bolduan not only defended her network but also railed against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that the network's reporting was “inaccurate.”Her remarks came at the end of Hegseth’s briefing on the bombing of an Iranian nuclear facility.“First and foremost, there was some new detail offered on the mission, on the cruise that pulled off this mission,” Bolduan said. “It's great to get some more information on that, but at the same time, we do need to make clear that despite the emotional speech and outrage from the defense secretary, what he said about the DIA assessment is what CNN reported on."She added, “His issue, that he took about it being preliminary, about it being low confidence. CNN reported on all of this. I was looking back just to make sure that we had it all throughout the reporting process."The anchor continued to defend the outlet’s integrity. “CNN had reported that it is preliminary and, of course, can be updated, including these two parts. It is still early. We reported in our initial report for the U.S. to have a comprehensive picture of the impact of the strikes.”“None of the sources described how the DIA assessment compares to the views of other agencies in the intelligence community,” Bolduan said. “The U.S. is continuing to pick up intelligence, including from within Iran, as they assess the damage.”“Also,” She went on, “in CNN reporting, [the secretary] took real issue and seemed very upset about it not being stated that this was there was low confidence stated in this assessment. It's also in CNN reporting, including this, that the final U.S. military battle damage assessment by the DIA could take days or even weeks to complete, multiple sources familiar with the Pentagon's process told CNN.”“And now a lot of the questions that still remain,” she said. “Honest, questions that everyone in that room should be asked, that he had been berating the honest questions about any U.S. military operation. Those do continue.” Watch the full segment below or click the link. - YouTube youtu.be

Donald Trump on Thursday spread a "rumor" about his enemies in the media.Trump took to his own social media site, Truth Social, to announce the hearsay about two news outlets he has opposed for several years."Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong," Trump wrote in reference to stories about internal documents leaked to the press. "Lets[sic] see what happens?"The president has consistently claimed that the Iran nuclear sites were "completely obliterated," and that his own administration was wrong to suggest the barrage could have only set back the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program by a few months.See the full post here.

President Donald Trump has put the world one step closer to the “unimaginable catastrophe” with his actions against Iran, according to Newsweek columnist David Faris.“President Donald Trump's reckless and illegal strikes on Iranian nuclear sites now threaten to blow up [80 years worth of work through the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)],” Farris said. Faris, who is an Associate Professor at Roosevelt University, added, “Trump's aggression is more likely to lead to what scholars call a ‘proliferation cascade’ than it is to stop Tehran's nuclear program.”Breaking down the NPT, he said there are two components. One, don't build nuclear weapons. Two, work toward an “abolition“ of nuclear weapons. Faris noted the second piece to the treaty is “much less discussed, component required the five signatories already in possession of nuclear weapons at the time the treaty was signed (the U.S., USSR, U.K., France, and China).”Today, there are nine nuclear-armed countries, and the professor notes they all “have basically abandoned” the “abolition” part of the treaty. Although these nine countries hold nuclear arms, former National Security Council staffer Jon Wolfsthal believes there are “40 additional states that are technically advanced enough to build nuclear weapons if they chose to do so."Faris believes “Because the nuclear-armed countries have now gone decades without serious disarmament efforts, that trust [to abolish the weapon] was already wobbly.” Now, Faris said, Trump’s bombing of an Iranian nuclear facility “has basically just destroyed [that trust].”“A world with a growing number of nuclear powers is less safe and more prone to almost unimaginable catastrophe.” The professor later added, “That has been the driving principle of America's successful nuclear policy for decades, and with one capricious order, President Trump has inadvertently made the nightmare of a proliferation cascade much more likely.”

This live blog is now closedPictures from Nairobi city centre show police firing water cannon at protesters:The protests on 25 June 2024 saw police relying on teargas and water cannon to disperse the crowd of thousands of protesters. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump publicly insulted two reporters while taking questions at the NATO summit, which was held at the Hague.“Does anyone have any questions?” Trump asked.A wide shot of the crowed seemingly had every reporter raising their hand."Wow. That's a lot of questions,” Trump joked.“Who's a nice person,” Trump said searching the crowd. “You're not a nice person... but we will let you get one. Go here. What's he going to ask? He is not nice at all. I know him well.”Trump was speaking about CBS Senior White house reporter Ed O'Keefe.“You just said you believe the conflict between Israel and Iran is over. What makes you so confident it is? What do you do if it isn't?" O’Keefe asked.“Because I dealt with both and they are both tired, exhausted,” Trump said. “They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently, and both were satisfied to go home and get out.”Trump then went to answer another question.“Yes, please go ahead,” Trump said pointing to CNN Anchor Kaitlan Collins. “Oh fake news, CNN. Here we go.” Trump added, “Wait until you hear this question.”He then said that Collins should apologize to the soldiers who risked their lives to bomb the Iranian nuclear facility.“I think we are all appreciative soldiers and a warriors,” Collins said before asking her question. “Israeli intelligence on these attacks the earlier you said U.S. intelligence was inconclusive. Are you relying on israeli intelligence for your assessment of the impact of the strike?”“No. This is also Iran made the statement,” Trump asserted. “And is also -- read the document that was given. We can talk about if you would like. The document said it could be very severe damage, but it didn't take that.”He added, “They said it could be limited or could be very severe. They really didn't know other than to say it could be limited or it could be very, very severe and you didn't choose to put that because was very early after.”Watch below or click here.

President Donald Trump’s reaction to being warned about Iranian bombs being dropped on a US base was “it’s fine” during a press conference at the NATO summit.The remarks came while he was speaking about Europe’s military spending.“It's vital this additional money be spent on various areas of military hardware, not bureaucracy,” Trump said. “And hopefully the hardware is going to be made in America because with the best hardware in the world.”He then went on to boast about how great U.S. military weapons are. “You saw that, working vessels were shot at us the other day, and [Iran was] very nice. They said, 'We were going to shoot them at 1:00, okay?'”“I said ‘it's fine,’” Trump remarked of the bombing.He added, “Everybody was evacuated off the base so they could get hurt except for the gunners. they call them the gunners, and out of 14 high in the missiles that we shot at the base in Qatar, all 14 as you know, were shut down by our equipment. Amazing stuff. Amazing that they could do, like shooting a bullet with a bullet. It's the same thing if you think about it.”Watch the full moment below or click the link.

Israel is now questioning President Donald Trump’s damage report, and CNN political and global analyst Barak Ravid claims Israeli intelligence is “a bit perplexed.”The remarks came while Ravid was speaking with anchor Kate Bolduan. “You have new reporting on what Israeli intelligence services believe,” Bolduan said, “but what are you hearing about this?”“Well, I don't know if Israel had anybody on the ground going into the facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan and looking up close at what happened,” Ravid, who is also an Axios reporter, said. “I just don't know if that's true. I do know that President Trump was accurate when he said that Israel is preparing its own battle damage assessment report.”Ravid added, “Several Israeli officials told me that they were actually a bit perplexed by how fast the defense intelligence agency produced their own battle damage assessment, because for the Israelis, it is still too soon to have, you know, those kind of specific conclusions of how far back the Israeli and U.S. strikes took the Iranian nuclear program.”The political and global analyst sources told him, “It is still unclear whether they were damaged, but it is still unclear if there was internal collapse, and in Fordow there was also significant damage, but it was still unclear whether there was collapse underground. I think that's the situation, at least as I heard it last night from Israeli officials.”Bolduan then asked, “If the ceasefire between Israel and Iran is now holding, as it obviously seems to be, what are you hearing from your sources about what happens now?” “I think there's a lot of focus on Gaza now,” Ravid said. “Seven Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday. In an IED that was put under an armored personnel carrier. I think that both Israeli public opinion and parts, big parts of the Israeli leadership want this war to be over.”Watch the full interaction below or here. - YouTube youtu.be