Headline

US Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program

Published

5 months ago

June 22, 2025

Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday as Washington sought to assess what remained of the three targeted sites.

The surprise strikes threaten to deepen conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, with Tehran vowing to retaliate against US involvement.

But the United States said President Donald Trump wanted peace and urged Iran to end the conflict after strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.

“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing, adding that the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path”, Hegseth said. “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.”

Standing beside Hegseth, top US general Dan Caine said that “it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there.”

“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he told reporters.

– Protests in Tehran –

People gathered in the center of Tehran to protest against US and Israeli attacks, waving flags and chanting slogans, state TV showed.

Trump claimed total success for the operation in an address to the nation hours after the attack, and Vice President JD Vance followed up on Sunday morning.

“We know that we set the Iranian nuclear program back substantially last night, whether it’s years or beyond,” he told ABC.

“We’re not at war with Iran — we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he added. “The president took decisive action to destroy that program last night.”

In Tehran, AFP journalists said the roar of aircraft flying over the city was heard repeatedly for the first time since Israel’s initial attacks.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it had not detected any increase in radiation levels at the nuclear sites and Tehran said Sunday there were no signs of contamination.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul the United States and Israel had “crossed a very big red line,” asserting Iran would continue to defend itself “by all means necessary.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US strikes, saying Trump’s decision to “target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.”

The Israeli military was also checking the results of the US raid on the deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo, with a spokesman saying it was “too soon” to know if Iran had removed enriched uranium from the site.

The main US strike group was seven B-2 Spirit bombers flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings, Caine said.

– Global concern –

In response to the US attack, Iran’s armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport, the country’s main international gateway near Tel Aviv.

Israeli rescuers said at least 23 people were wounded.

In Jerusalem, Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software engineer, said he hoped the US intervention would hasten an end to the Iran-Israel war.

“Israel by itself would not stop… and it would take longer,” he said.

Israel said it had launched fresh strikes on western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported four Revolutionary Guard members were killed in strikes on a military base in the city’s north.

The Israeli military said it had “struck missile launchers ready to launch toward Israeli territory, soldiers in the Iranian Armed Forces, and swiftly neutralized the launchers that launched missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported that a “massive explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

Iranian news agencies also reported strikes in Yazd province.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticized the US move and urged de-escalation.

The European Union called on all sides “to step back,” while stressing Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Iranian foreign minister said he would travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Following his address, Trump warned Iran against retaliation. Iran and its proxies have previously attacked US military bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.

Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Sunday repeated their threat to resume attacks in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, saying they were ready to target US ships and warships.

The US president had stepped up his rhetoric against Iran since Israel first struck the country on June 13, repeating his insistence it could never have nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies seeking an atomic bomb. On Saturday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear program “cannot be taken away… by threats or war.”

Headline

Nnamdi Kanu’s Case Proof Of Religious Persecution In Nigeria – US lawmaker, John James

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Editor

Former chairman of the Africa Subcommittee and now a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative, John James, has claimed that the case of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is proof of religious persecution in Nigeria.

James stated this when the United States House Subcommittee on Africa on Thursday, held a public hearing to review President Donald Trump’s recent redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

The hearing in Washington, DC included senior US State Department officials and Nigerian religious leaders.

James claimed that in the case of Nnamdi Kanu, Nigeria’s Court of Appeal had struck down the charges against him and ordered his release in 2022.

He said: “Religious persecution is tied to political repression and weakening institutions in Nigeria. The detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a clear example.

“In 2022, Nigeria’s Court of Appeals struck down the charges against him and ordered his release.

“The UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention has also called for his unconditional release, yet he remains in solitary confinement in deteriorating health and recently had to represent himself in court.

“Nigeria has signaled that the law is optional and targeting Christians is fair game. Just hours ago this morning, despite the pleas and cries of Nigerian people and many Nigerian lawmakers, Kanu was convicted on all charges.”

Nnamdi Kanu was on Thursday, sentenced to life imprisonment over terrorism charges.

Headline

Nigerians Don’t Trust Their Govt – US Congressman Riley Moore

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Editor

US Congressman Riley Moore has said that Nigerian people do not trust their government.

Moore stated this on Thursday at US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, which is investigating Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’, CPC.

“The Nigerian people don’t trust their government. ‘How can you trust a government that doesn’t show up when you ask them to?

“The Nigerian government must work with the US in cooperation to address these insecurity issues.

“A case that just happened recently in Plateau state. We had a pastor there who warned the Nigerian government that they were under attack. There’s imminent attack forces here in the next 24 hours. Please come and help us.

“The Nigerian government did not only ignore it but put up a press release that it is fake news,” he said.

Moore would be meeting with a delegation of senior members of the Nigerian government, over the devastating insecurity in Nigeria and the US designation of the country as CPC, DAILY POST reports.

Headline

US Makes U-turn, To Attend G20 Summit In South Africa

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2025

Editor

In an 11th-hour about-turn, the United States has told South Africa it wants to take part in this weekend’s G20 summit in Johannesburg, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday.

President Donald Trump’s administration had said it would not take part in the November 22-23 meeting and that no final statement by G20 leaders could be issued without its presence.

It has clashed with South Africa over various international and domestic policies this year, extending its objections to Pretoria’s G20 priorities for the meeting of leading economies being held for the first time in Africa.

“We have received notice from the United States, a notice which we are still in discussions with them over, about a change of mind about participating in one shape, form or other in the summit,” Ramaphosa told reporters.

“This comes at the late hour before the summit begins. And so therefore, we do need to engage in those types of discussions to see how practical it is and what it finally really means,” he said.

There was no immediate confirmation from US officials.

Ramaphosa said: “We still need to engage with them to understand fully what their participation at the 11th hour means and how it will manifest itself.”

In a note to the government on Saturday, the US embassy repeated that it would not attend the summit, saying South Africa’s G20 priorities “run counter to the US policy views and we cannot support consensus on any documents negotiated under your presidency”.

Ramaphosa said earlier Thursday that South Africa would not be bullied.

“It cannot be that a country’s geographical location or income or army determines who has a voice and who is spoken down to,” he told delegates at a G20 curtain-raiser event.

There “should be no bullying of one nation by another”, he said.

– ‘Positive sign’ –
Ramaphosa said the apparent change of heart was “a positive sign”.

“All countries are here, and the United States, the biggest economy in the world, needs to be here,” he said.

South Africa chose “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” as the theme of its presidency of the G20, which comprises 19 countries and two regional bodies, the European Union and the African Union.

Its agenda focuses on strengthening disaster resilience, improving debt sustainability for low-income countries, financing a “just energy transition” and harnessing “critical minerals for inclusive growth and sustainable development”.

After early objections from Washington, it vowed to press on with its programme and its aim to find consensus on a leaders’ statement on the outcome of the discussions.

“We will not be told by anyone who is absent that we cannot adopt a declaration or make any decisions at the summit,” Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola said Thursday.

Trump has singled out South Africa for harsh treatment on a number of issues since he returned to the White House in January, notably making debunked claims of white Afrikaners being systematically “killed and slaughtered” in the country.

He expelled South Africa’s ambassador in March and has imposed 30 percent trade tariffs, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.

US businesses were well represented at a separate Business 20 (B20) event that wound up in Johannesburg Thursday.

The head of the US Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne Clark, thanked South Africa for fostering “real collaboration between G20 nations during a time of rapid change” during its rotating presidency, which transfers to the United States for 2026.

“The US Chamber of Commerce will use our B20 leadership to foster international collaboration,” Clark said.

The United States has significant business interests in South Africa with more than 600 US companies operating in the country, according to the South African embassy in Washington.

G20 members account for 85 percent of global GDP and around two-thirds of the world’s population.