Massive car explosion in Arlington? EMS clarifies reports about Amazon truck fire in Virginia
Several car 'explosion' reports came out of Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, DC, on Sunday. The county's fire department responded to the 2200 block of S Clark St for a vehicle fire that was spreading to nearby bushes. However, the fire was put out quickly, authorities said. The cause of the fire was later revealed by officials. An Amazon van caught on fire in Arlington, Virginia on Sunday
While reports about a car explosion surfaced, the Arlington Fire & EMS issued a clarification.
'Units responded to a fully involved vehicle fire on the 2200 block of S Clark St that was extending into the bushes. E105 quickly extinguished the delivery vehicle fire. No injuries to the driver or firefighters. Fire marshals will be investigating the cause,' the department said in a post on X, platform formerly known as Twitter.
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The EMS said that a van did catch fire but the reports of an explosion are false. 'This was a gas-powered vehicle that caught fire due to a malfunctioning engine. There was no explosion, and no packages were involved,' they said about the cause of the explosion.
The driver of the delivery van was not injured.
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Locals from the scene posted photos of the van. 'A vehicle (Black Sprinter Van) has reportedly exploded in Arlington VA, near the DC border, this is on 23rd St S near Richmond Hwy,' one person tweeted.
'A vehicle exploded in Arlington, near Washington DC. Initial reports confirm a bomb was placed inside the car,' another person circulated false claims.
Arlington, Virginia, is directly adjacent to Washington, DC, separated primarily by the Potomac River. The distance between central points, such as Arlington's Courthouse area to downtown DC is approximately 2-4 miles.
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Iran's nuclear programme wasn't 'obliterated' or 'set back decades', as Trump said
Contrary to Donald Trump's assertions, Iran's nuclear infrastructure was damaged and not destroyed and experts and leaked intelligence assessments indicate the programme could be revived within months read more A satellite image shows airstrike craters over the underground centrifuge halls of the Natanz Enrichment Facility, following US airstrikes amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Natanz County, Iran. Maxar Technologies/Reuters Despite US President Donald Trump's repeated assertions that Iran's nuclear programme has been 'obliterated' and 'set back decades,' early intelligence assessments suggest otherwise. A preliminary analysis from the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), reported in American media, indicated that American and Israeli airstrikes on June 21 only delayed Iran's nuclear activities by a matter of months, not decades, and certainly not eliminated them. The DIA's report, though classified, was cited by multiple sources familiar with internal assessments. These officials suggested that the damage, while significant, did not dismantle the core industrial and technological infrastructure that underpins Iran's nuclear ambitions. The White House has pushed back hard against this narrative, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the idea that 'unnamed Iranian officials' could know the extent of the damage 'nonsense,' asserting instead that 'their nuclear weapons program is over.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD IAEA director: Damage 'severe but not total' Echoing the cautious tone of US intelligence, Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told CBS News that while the strikes had caused severe damage, the destruction was not total. He emphasised that Iran still retained the ability to resume uranium enrichment within a matter of months, noting that the necessary capacities remained in place. He explained that Iran could operate a few cascades of centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, or even less than that. Grossi also warned against assuming that Iran's nuclear program had been eliminated. He said that, frankly, one could not claim that everything had disappeared and that nothing remained. He stressed that Iran's knowledge base and industrial capabilities were still intact, making it possible for enrichment activities to resume once operational challenges were overcome. Intercepted Iranian communications suggest limited damage The Washington Post reported that intercepted communications between senior Iranian officials seemed to show a consensus that the attacks were less devastating than initially feared. The newspaper cited four individuals with knowledge of the intercepted messages, suggesting that Iranian leadership had assessed the damage to their facilities as relatively contained. However, the credibility of these communications remains a subject of debate within intelligence circles. Another source, quoted by Reuters, confirmed their existence but labelled them 'unreliable indicators' of the real state of Iran's nuclear programme. A disputed narrative from the Trump administration Trump has remained unwavering in his version of events. In an interview with Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures, he described the operation as a 'spectacular military success,' claiming the nuclear programme was 'obliterated like nobody's ever seen before'. His defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, echoed this, insisting the strikes marked the 'end to their nuclear ambitions'. Yet, during a Pentagon press briefing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine struck a more measured tone. Caine admitted that the full battle damage assessment was still ongoing and said it was 'too early' to determine exactly what capabilities Iran retained. He did, however, note that initial assessments showed 'extremely severe damage and destruction' at the targeted sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Enrichment capacity could rebound quickly Despite the high-impact nature of the strikes, experts, including Grossi believed that Iran could resume uranium enrichment relatively quickly. He said if Iran wished to do so, it would be able to start the process again. He said that Iran was a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, and that its ability to restart centrifuge operations was based on years of accumulated knowledge that could not simply be undone. Grossi also highlighted the absence of IAEA inspectors on the ground as a critical blind spot. Since the strikes, Iran has denied inspectors access to the targeted facilities, citing security and political concerns. Tehran's UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, insisted inspectors were 'in Iran' but said they could not access specific sites. 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Indian Express
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Two days after US President Donald Trump said he was terminating all trade discussions with Canada, Ottawa on Sunday (June 29) said it was scrapping the contentious Digital Services Tax. Trump had called the tax 'a direct and blatant attack on our Country'. It was supposed to come into effect on Monday, June 30. After Canada's walk-back, its finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, spoke to the US trade representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday, signalling that the trade deal talks might be back on track. What is Canada's Digital Services Tax, and why was it such a sticking issue with the US? What will its revocation mean for Prime Minister Mark Carney's government? We explain. The tax aimed to collect a levy of 3% of the revenue a digital services firm made from Canadian users, above $20 million in a calendar year. In one of its more controversial clauses, payments were to be retroactive, beginning 2022. While the law had been passed earlier, payments were due from today. Among those impacted would have been major Amercian technology firms, such as Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, etc. 'The DST was announced in 2020 to address the fact that many large technology companies operating in Canada may not otherwise pay tax on revenues generated from Canadians… While Canada was working with international partners, including the United States, on a multilateral agreement that would replace national digital services taxes, the DST was enacted to address the aforementioned taxation gap,' Canada's finance ministry said on June 29. If the law had been implemented, American companies would have had to pay roughly $2.7 billion to the Canadian government, a report in The New York Times said. Trump was vehemently opposed to the law. On Friday, he posted on Truth Social, 'We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with… has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country… Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.' Getting a trade deal with the US is important for Canada, which, going by US Census Bureau data, exported $412.7 billion worth of goods to the US last year. At present, Trump has slapped 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and 25% on auto imports, apart from the 10% base tariff he has put on most countries. Along with this, Canada and Mexico face tariffs of 25% apparently to curb fentanyl smuggling to the US. Canada, thus, agreed to scrap the tax to take trade talks forward. 'In our negotiations on a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States, Canada's new government will always be guided by the overall contribution of any possible agreement to the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses. Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis,' PM Carney said on Sunday. Given that Carney had come to power mainly on a platform of standing up to Trump, this fold-up could have been embarrasing for him. However, the tax wasn't too popular within Canada either, as it could have raised the cost of digital services like hailing rides and streaming movies. Robin Guy, a leader of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, had said in July last year, 'The imposition of a retroactive discriminatory digital services tax by the federal government will not only make life more expensive for Canadian families, businesses and workers, but it will significantly harm our relationship with the United States. The government should reverse its unilateral decision that is out of step with our allies, and instead, work with our trading partners on an international solution that would better serve Canadians.' In fact, recently, many had believed that the tax's best purpose could be to use it as a bargaining chip in talks with the US.
