Iran nuclear capability set back ‘years' fresh US intel claims
This new information contradicts an earlier, widely reported, leaked assessment that suggested military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities only set the program back by mere months.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has now claimed that credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged, requiring years to rebuild key facilities.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also asserted the destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities, criticizing 'propaganda media' for selectively leaking classified information.
Following the leak of the initial assessment, the Trump administration reportedly plans to limit the sharing of classified intelligence with Congress.
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The Independent
7 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump tells Schumer ‘go to hell' in meltdown over nominees after Senate fails to agree deal
President Donald Trump has raged at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after the upper chamber of Congress broke for its summer recess without approving a number of his nominees to top posts. 'Senator Cryin' Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country,' Trump seethed on Truth Social on Sunday. The billion dollar deal alluded to by the president, presented as though it were a ransom demand, refers to the Democrat's request for the restoration of funding for foreign aid and the National Institutes of Health in exchange for the postponement of the month-long August recess to grant more time to push through the nominees. Trump continued: 'This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name. Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL! 'Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!' In a second post, the president continued: 'Democrats, lead [sic] by Cryin' Chuck Schumer, are slow walking my Nominees, more than 150 of them. They wanted us to pay, originally, two billion dollars for approvals. The Dems are CRAZED LUNATICS!!!' The president is correct in saying that the veteran New Yorker is under pressure from his own party, as the latest polling continues to reveal Democratic discontent about their side's 'weak' response to the Trump administration's many controversial policies. A defiant Schumer replied to the president's first post twice on X, first declaring that the decision to hold out on an agreement with the Republicans to delay the recess represented the 'Art of the Deal' and then commenting, in reference to the Jeffrey Epstein saga: 'Release the files, Donald.' Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for his part, said it was time to rethink the rules to stop parties employing stalling tactics, like demanding roll calls before each vote on a nominee's confirmation, for short-term political gain. 'I think they're desperately in need of change,' Thune said. 'I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.' Schumer said attempting to revise the rules when the chamber returns in September would represent 'a huge mistake' and presented the failure to reach an agreement as a win, declaring: 'Donald Trump tried to bully us, go around us, threaten us, call us names, but he got nothing.' 'We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now,' he added. Despite Trump's frustration, the Senate has already waved through a number of his most contentious choices for major cabinet positions like Pete Hegseth and Robert F Kennedy Jr, most recently approving ex-Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to be the top prosecutor to Washington, D.C., and sending the president's former attorney Emile Bove to the federal appeals court.
Telegraph
8 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump's plan to use a British bank to target the Democrats
The elements of the story could be taken directly from a thriller: a British whistleblower with military credentials, secret meetings with top justice officials, a trail of encrypted spreadsheets allegedly linking a British bank to Iran's military and terror networks, and now, an explosive political backdrop involving President Donald Trump and his vendetta against the Democrat prosecutors who once tried to dismantle his empire. At the centre of it all is Standard Chartered, the UK's fifth-largest bank and a household name thanks to its sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club. The bank has already been fined nearly $2bn by American authorities for breaches of sanctions against Iran involving its US branch – having admitted wrongdoing for the first time in 2012 and then again in 2019. It is now facing fresh allegations, which it denies but which could yet see it forced to pay much more. According to whistleblower Julian Knight, a former RAF officer turned compliance executive at the bank, Standard Chartered's transgressions go further than previously admitted. He alleges the bank also concealed an additional $10bn in transactions involving Iranian firms carried out through its New York outpost, which it is yet to answer for. Some of the alleged transactions are said to have been linked to Iran's military, nuclear programme, and US-designated terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas. The bank has always denied suggestions it conducted transactions for terror groups. The alleged dealings, which are claimed to have taken place between 2008 and 2013, came after Standard Chartered had announced in 2007 that it would cease all new business with Iranian customers as Washington ramped up pressure on the Islamic Republic. Knight (who left the bank in 2011) says he and fellow whistleblower Robert Marcellus, a currency trader, discovered the supposedly hidden transactions after re-examining spreadsheets and documents provided to US authorities in the past. But when they brought the new 'evidence' to New York attorney general Letitia James's office last year, Knight claims, officials failed to act. His allegations have now been seized on by Trump, who has repeatedly clashed with James, a Democrat, in recent years. On July 27, the president used his Truth Social account to post an article by The Gateway Pundit, a Right-wing American news website, alleging the attorney general – whose slew of legal cases against Trump, including a $454m civil fraud case last year, have seen the pair repeatedly clash publicly – failed to investigate Standard Chartered despite the new trove of information presented by Knight. That followed on from a seemingly important intervention by the Department of Justice, which last month moved to review previous court decisions related to the saga. The article Trump's account promoted described the case as James's 'biggest scandal yet'. In the past, the president has also labelled the New York attorney general a 'totally corrupt politician'. Whilst James appears to be the focal point of the Trump administration's concern, it has also taken aim at his Democratic predecessors over the case – clearly viewing it as a potential Achilles heel. Kari Lake, one of the president's most trusted allies, who serves in the Trump administration as senior advisor at the US Agency for Global Media, says: 'This is a serious issue. President Trump – trying to undo the damage caused by Biden and Obama with their destructive policies toward Israel and America as well as toward the people of Iran – has put forth a maximum-pressure zero-tolerance policy blocking any funding to Iran and its terror network. 'And now a British bank who operates in the United States is accused of processing billions of illicit payments to Iran. And the New York attorney general's office led by Tish James knew about it and did nothing. 'The Fed should have spotted these payments and stopped them, but they did not. The question is was it simply ineptitude on the part of Letitia James and the Federal Reserve or were they complicit in helping the Iranian regime?' The president's political war against the Democrats threatens to drag the bank back into uncomfortable territory, six years after it was fined $1.1bn when a US criminal investigation revealed breaches of sanctions on Iran and other countries. That followed on from a damning August 2012 ruling which saw Standard Chartered forced to shell out $340m to settle claims that it had left the US financial system 'vulnerable to terrorists' by hiding transactions linked to Iran. The following month, then chancellor George Osborne is reported to have intervened on the bank's behalf amid concerns in London that American regulators might withdraw Standard Chartered's US licence over the scandal. By the end of the year, the bank had escaped prosecution and kept its US licence. Knight claims the bank's internal data shows a far deeper pattern of deception. He argues that he, Marcellus and a forensic investigator 'decloaked' Excel spreadsheets to reveal 'a vast number' of previously undetected 'concealed transactions with sanctioned Iranian entities'. He alleges these findings were presented to officials in a series of meetings last year, including with Chris D'Angelo, James's right-hand man within the New York Attorney General Office. 'They [the meetings] were held at the invitation of the NYAG. I flew to New York to be present for the first meeting. We cannot understand why these transactions were not previously disclosed by the bank to the NYAG,' Knight says. In pursuit of a payout Cynics might suggest the whistleblowers are simply looking to cash in, and that Trump's return to the White House was what they needed to turn their fortunes around. Knight and Marcellus have unsuccessfully to date pursued a payout for their whistleblowing under a federal statute which means those who expose wrongdoing can lay claim to proceeds generated by fines, if their intervention proves integral to legal action being taken. The pair's case, known as the 'Brutus litigation', argues they provided material to US law enforcement agencies that proved Standard Chartered had acted in breach of sanctions. The administrations headed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden appeared to refuse to back the whistleblowers' claims, with government agencies arguing the fines imposed on the bank were based on evidence unrelated to the material provided by Knight and Marcellus. Standard Chartered itself argues the pair have concocted 'fabricated claims' in order to seek 'personal financial gain'. But the tide may be turning under Trump, with the Department of Justice last month giving notice that it wanted to review previous decisions which effectively buried the whistleblowers' arguments. In the filings, seen by The Telegraph, the DoJ stated that it wanted a 30-day extension to 'confer internally' about the issue. Danny Alter, former general counsel at the New York Department of Financial Services, who led previous enforcement actions against Standard Chartered, says the DoJ's move was 'highly unusual' and 'suggests that there's been a significant change in the government's thinking'. 'If accurate… recently revealed evidence of the many billions of US dollars in criminal transactions that Standard Chartered allegedly conducted for Iran's military complex and terrorist proxies, like Hamas and Hezbollah, is mind boggling,' Alter says. 'It is a financial blueprint for how Iran built its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and funded global terrorism, despite years of US economic sanctions. 'You have to wonder if the enormous risks and costs of the recent US military operations to eliminate Iran's nuclear programme played a role in the government's seeming re-evaluation of Standard Chartered's case and the bank's potential liability.' Standard Chartered, for its part, remains defiant. Referring to the case brought by Knight and Marcellus, a spokesman said: 'The long-running qui tam lawsuit against Standard Chartered has been dismissed multiple times. The trial court already twice rejected the claims brought by a former employee and his associates who have for more than a dozen years sought personal financial gain through fabricated claims against the bank. 'The frivolous appeal of that rejection remains pending. The US government long ago concluded that there is no merit to the baseless accusations of sanctions and plaintiff's various arguments have been described by the courts as 'on the verge of vexatious and frivolous', 'without merit' and 'threadbare'. 'We will continue to vigorously defend against attempts to profit from fabrications and to damage our reputation.' But the DoJ's recent move may signal the case is not dead after all. Ultimately, Standard Chartered could soon yet find itself back in the spotlight - this time, not just as a defendant in a sanctions case, but as an unwitting pawn in a bitter political feud.
The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump envoy to visit Moscow this week before deadline for ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump has said he will dispatch his special envoy to Moscow this week before his Friday deadline for progress to be made on ending the war in Ukraine. Trump said Steve Witkoff would visit Moscow on Wednesday or Thursday. When asked on Sunday what message Witkoff would take to Russia and what Vladimir Putin could do to avoid new sanctions, the US president answered: 'Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.' In Kyiv, there is little expectation that Witkoff will make a breakthrough with Putin, but a hope that Trump's changed rhetoric and tougher stance on Moscow may lead to a real change in US support for Ukraine. Trump came into office convinced he could do a deal with Putin, but in recent weeks appears to have become increasingly frustrated with Russian actions. On Thursday he described Russia's continued attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine as 'disgusting' and on Sunday said that two nuclear submarines that he ordered to be deployed after online threats from the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now 'in the region', without giving further details. Trump had initially announced in July a 50-day deadline for Russia and Ukraine to end the war, but said last week he said he no longer believed Russia was serious about ending the war and shortened it to '10 or 12' days, later clarified as this Friday, 8 August. Trump has previously said the new measures he has in mind if the deadline is not met could involve 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said if Russia did not change its course by Friday, Kyiv expects the 'irreversible logistics' of secondary sanctions on Russian oil exports to be set in motion. 'After that he'll look whether this is helping to bring about the end of the war or not, and if not then he will move to the next step,' said Podolyak, in an interview in Kyiv. The next move, he said, could be further sanctions, and the increased militarisation of Ukraine. 'Trump has already said he's ready to sell Europe as much weapons as they want [to pass to Ukraine]. Before he didn't say that … This is already a different conception of the world,' he said. Before that, though, all eyes will be on Witkoff's visit to Moscow. On previous trips, he has held long one-on-one meetings with Putin and has spoken of his warm feelings for the Russian leader. On one occasion Putin gifted him an oil painting of Trump, on another, Witkoff arrived without an interpreter and used a Kremlin-provided translator. The camaraderie has left both Kyiv and other US allies wondering whether Witkoff is capable of delivering harsh messages to Moscow, although his visit this week will be the first since Trump's rhetoric on Ukraine became noticeably harsher. The Kremlin said on Monday it was 'always happy to see Mr Witkoff in Moscow' and a meeting with Putin was possible, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Putin said on Friday that he was in favour of 'a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries'. Despite periodically making such statements, Putin has also made clear that Russia's maximalist war goals remain essentially unchanged, demanding as a minimum control over four Ukrainian regions to which Moscow has laid claim, and a commitment that Ukraine will never join Nato. Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine have taken place in Turkey, with the third round in Istanbul last month, but the last set of talks broke down in less than an hour and the only substantive outcome from the meetings has been a series of agreements on prisoner exchanges. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that a new exchange agreed at the last meeting in Istanbul would result in 1,200 Ukrainian troops returning home. Zelenskyy has said he wants to meet directly with Putin, with Trump or Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a mediator, but the Russian president has said he sees no point in a meeting until the outline of a ceasefire has been drawn up. However, the delegation he sent to Turkey, led by former culture minister and patriotic author Vladimir Medinsky, suggests the Kremlin is not serious about a deal. 'Those countries who thought Russia was ready for talks, and that the war could end at any moment if Ukraine would only agree to negotiations, they can now see that Russia is not ready for any real talks,' said Podolyak. Russia continues to target Ukraine with almost nightly drone and missile attacks. Last week was one of the deadliest for some time in terms of civilian casualties, with one set of attacks on Kyiv killing 31 people including five children. Both sides continue to target infrastructure in the opposing country with drones. Russia's ministry of defence said on Monday that its air defences had intercepted 61 Ukrainian drones overnight.
