Trump orders nuclear submarines moved near Russia after 'provocative' comments
"Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev... I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
"Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances."
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France 24
29 minutes ago
- France 24
US envoy Witkoff to visit Moscow on Wednesday
The source did not specify if the meetings will include Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Witkoff has met with several times previously. Trump has given Russia until Friday to halt its offensive in Ukraine or face new penalties. The White House has not outlined specific actions it plans to take on Friday, but Trump has previously threatened to impose "secondary tariffs" targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. The move would aim to stifle Russian exports, but would risk significant international disruption. Despite pressure from Washington, Russia has continued its onslaught against its pro-Western neighbor. Three rounds of peace talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a possible ceasefire, with the two sides appearing as far apart as ever. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce Western support. Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week urged his allies to push for "regime change" in Moscow. In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow's unrelenting offensive. When reporters asked Trump on Monday what Witkoff's message would be to Moscow, and if there was anything Russia could do to avoid the sanctions, Trump replied: "Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday it considered the talks with Witkoff to be "important, substantial and helpful" and valued US efforts to end the conflict. Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his nearly three-and-a-half-year offensive were unchanged. Russia has frequently called on Ukraine to effectively cede control of four regions Moscow claims to have annexed, a demand Kyiv has called unacceptable. Putin also wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO. The visit comes after Trump said that two nuclear submarines he deployed following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now "in the region." Trump has not said whether he meant nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines. He also did not elaborate on the exact deployment locations, which are kept secret by the US military. Russia, in its first comments on the deployment, urged "caution" Monday. "Russia is very attentive to the topic of nuclear non-proliferation. And we believe that everyone should be very, very cautious with nuclear rhetoric," the Kremlin's Peskov said.
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
Twelve-day war: Impact of Iran's strikes censored by Israel
Sirens blared in the minutes before an Iranian ballistic missile crashed into the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan on the night of June 13, alerting residents to get into bomb shelters. The next morning, the people of Tirzah Street emerged to the sight of collapsed buildings and cars crushed into one another – hundreds of metres of destruction. One 74-year-old woman was killed. Just hours before Iran's strike on Ramat Gan, Israel had launched a surprise attack on Iran, kicking off a new armed conflict between the two nations. In a speech broadcast on June 1 3, 2025, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu justified the attack by citing the 'clear and present danger' that the Iranian nuclear program posed to "Israel's survival'. During the conflict, Israel killed about 30 Iranian senior security officials and 11 Iranian nuclear scientists. The Israeli army attacked more than 900 military sites, and between 800 and 1,000 Iranian missiles were destroyed on the ground. 36 Iranian strikes verified by the Observers team The strike on Ramat Gan was one of the first to hit Israeli soil. Despite the Israeli strikes on Iran's military bases, Iran was still able to fire more than 500 missiles at Israel during the 12 days of the war, according to The Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an Israeli think tank with links to the University of Tel Aviv. While most of the missiles were intercepted by the Israeli defence system, INSS reported that more than 50 missiles struck the country. The two parties, however, have had divergent narratives on the impact of the Iranian strikes both during and after the 12 days of the conflict. Iranian authorities bragged about their successes, claiming that they hit 16 strategic sites in Israel, while Israeli authorities minimised the damage caused by the Iranian strikes. The FRANCE 24 Observers team identified and geolocated 36 different Iranian strikes in Israel using open source data and by cross-referencing both amateur and professional images. The images that we verified show large swaths of destruction in several residential areas, as well as evidence that strikes hit strategic and military sites. Even though Israel incurred less damage than Iran, our investigation reveals that major strikes did take place but were kept under wraps by Israeli censorship. During the hostilities, the Israeli army ordered Israeli and international media outlets to refrain from publishing images of strikes on or near military targets. Silence around strikes on military sites Thanks to amateur images leaked online, our team was able to identify four Iranian missiles that landed on or near Israeli military zones. On June 17, an Iranian missile hit Camp Moshe Dayan, just a few hundred metres from the headquarters of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The camp, located in Ramat HaSharon to the north of Tel Aviv, is home to both Mossad and Unit 8200, which specialises in intercepting communications. An amateur video shows the impact of the missile on the camp, and photos taken on the ground that were published on Telegram enabled us to confirm that at least one building – a hangar – was damaged, though we don't know what the hangar was being used for before it came under fire. Three other missiles visible in the video hit civilian targets near the camp. Despite the site's strategic importance, neither the authorities nor Israeli or international media outlets reported this strike. It was the same story for a strike that hit the Kirya, a neighbourhood in Tel Aviv, on June 13. The Kirya is home to both the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli Ministry of Defence. While reporting live, Trey Yingst, a journalist with the US news channel Fox News, had just said that a building in the complex had been hit by an Iranian missile when he was interrupted by a man who told him, in English, to 'go back'. The journalist asks his cameraman to turn towards another building. However, he is interrupted again, and the cameraman is forced to turn his camera towards the ground. The video isn't visible on the social media channels of Fox News, but it was copied and then shared online. By examining photos and videos of the strike, our team was able to determine that the strike hit the Da Vinci complex, a 32-floor residential building, which is located right next to the military complex. The way that information about this attack was reported in other Israeli and international media outlets also makes it look like censorship was at play. Israeli newspaper Haaretz waited until June 29 to mention this strike in an article – a full two weeks after the attack took place, even though the images of it had already circulated online. We were also able to verify two other strikes that hit military targets thanks to data from the University of Oregon. One strike hit the airbase in Tel Nof, to the south of Rehovot. Another hit Camp Zipporit, located to the north of Nazareth. Our team asked the IDF on August 1 if they could confirm that Iranian missiles had hit Israeli military sites during the conflict. The army had not responded by the publication of this article. If the army does send a statement, we will update this article. An oil refinery that has halted operations for several months Additional Iranian strikes have hit strategic infrastructure for the Israeli economy. We identified that three Iranian attacks damaged energy infrastructure. Two hit and damaged an oil refinery in the port city of Haifa on the night of June 14. We were able to geolocate one of the impacts using images published by the press and those we found on social media. We were able to geolocate the other using satellite images. If you compare an aerial view of one building located in the western part of the oil refinery on June 21 – a few days after the strike – with another image from December 2024, you can see that it looks like the roof has caved in, leaving the building's skeleton exposed. After the wave of attacks on the night of June 14, Bazan Group – which runs the oil refinery – halted its activities for nearly two weeks. The company informed the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it wouldn't be back to full operations until October. It further reported that damage to the refinery caused by the Iranian missiles is estimated at between 150 and 200 million dollars. Three employees died in a fire caused by the attack. Several million dollars of damage caused to a research institute Another one of the so-called "strategic' Iranian missile strikes hit the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, on the night of June 14. The institute is ranked among the best in the world (outside the United States). It also has strong links to the Israeli defence industry. The AP, quoting the Institute, reported that the missile hit two buildings. One housed a biology lab. The other, which was still under construction, was to be used for chemistry research. More than 45 labs were damaged, according to the Times of Israel. Researchers at the institute estimated the damage at hundreds of millions of dollars. According to several images verified by our team, one of the buildings hit by the strike was completely destroyed. Residential areas in ruin Out of the 36 strikes that our team geolocated on Israeli soil, 28 hit civilian sites. Some hit fields, beaches, and parking lots, but others caused extensive damage across the country. The town of Rehovot, located about 20 kilometres south of Tel Aviv, was one of the cities most impacted by Iranian missiles. One strike on the night of June 14 landed downtown, damaging or destroying a number of neighbouring buildings. Drone images filmed a few hours after the impact by local media outlet News Rehovot give a sense of the scale of the damage. Videos available on TikTok show the extent of the damage, including shops with blown-out windows and crumbled facades more than 250 metres from the point of impact. Iranian strikes hit a number of residential areas in Israel throughout the month of June. A missile hit a parking lot in the southwest of Tel Aviv on June 16, tearing apart most of the surrounding buildings. speech broadcast on June 1 0, our team shows how we located damage nearly 300 metres from the point of impact. 3,500 people injured, 41,000 requests for compensation filed Farzin Nadimi, a researcher at the Washington Institute who specialises in Iranian security and defence, says that civilian areas were among the targets of the Islamic republic. 'At some point, during or from the very beginning of the campaign, they actually intended to strike residential areas,' Nadimi told our team. 'You shouldn't forget that they consider all Israelis as enemies, enemy combatants.' Nadimi says that these strikes may have been part of an Iranian strategy to negotiate an end to the conflict. 'They knew that by pressuring the Israeli civilians and by destroying the residential areas, they would pressure the Israeli government and the military to probably agree to a ceasefire,' he said. The destruction caused by Iranian missiles to Israel had a direct impact on the lives of many Israelis. Nearly 3,500 Israelis were injured during the conflict with Iran, according to INSS, and about 30 people died. More than 41,000 applications were submitted to the Compensation Fund at the Israel Tax Authority. In Israel, these funds cover some of the damage to buildings and materials caused by war. However, this damage remains minor compared to what Iran experienced. Around 935 Iranians were killed and more than 4,700 people were injured by Israeli and American bombs, according to INSS. Blind missiles Outside of the missiles that caused damage, our team also identified strikes that hit roads, parking lots, and even uninhabited zones. For example, we identified one strike that took place on June 14 in the northern Israeli city of Tirat Carmel. A video of the missile falling shows that it hit a beach, located a few dozen metres from a road and 200 metres from the closest homes. It was a full two kilometres from the Tirat Carmel military base. A missile landed in a parking lot in the town of Beersheba on June 20, damaging several nearby buildings and setting fire to a number of cars. A new military base, which houses the southern command of the army and a division specialised in cyber defence and communication technology, is just 300 metres from the point of impact. The parking lot is also close to Beersheba's so-called "cyber campus" where American companies Microsoft, IBM and Dell all have offices. The Iranian authorities have not clearly communicated what they were targeting, so it is hard to determine their intentions. Nadimi thinks that the missiles that fell a few hundred metres from military and strategic targets lacked precision. 'While they were quite 'successful' at hitting residential blocks in central Tel Aviv, for example, they still lack precision to specifically strike a certain building in a military, security, or intelligence complex.' When reporting on a strike that hit Soroka Hospital on June 19, Israeli newspaper Haaretz suggested that Iran might be following a strategy of 'ballistic terror.' This would explain the three Iranian strikes using cluster missiles. These weapons, used to hit a number of targets at once, hit buildings housing a school and nursery in southern Israel on June 20. There were no victims. Strong censorship from the authorities All of the strikes that we reported in this article were either partially or fully kept under wraps by Israeli military censorship. A Chief Censor in the Israeli military is tasked with limiting the sensitive information disseminated by both Israeli and international media outlets. Guidelines updated in May specify that information about 'the impact and results of enemy actions and attacks… carried out against the state of Israel' must be submitted to the Censor before publication. Authorities doubled down on these policies after the conflict with Iran began. In a communiqué dated June 16 and addressed to all Israeli and international newsrooms present in Israel, the Chief Censor said that 'the use of drones or fixed-position cameras to capture wide-area footage around the impact site is strictly prohibited'. On June 17, Israeli police arrested journalists from the Turkish Arabic-language channel TRT and the Egyptian channel Al Ghad TV who were filming the port in Haifa. Police also seized some of their material. And while Israel has been trying to limit the spread of information about all missile impacts on its territory, information about strikes that damaged military sites is even more tightly controlled. In the same communiqué, the Chief Censor banned 'filming damage at or near military sites' and broadcasting 'the exact address of the impact location' in 'civilian areas near security facilities'.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
NASA races to put nuclear reactors on Moon and Mars
A new NASA directive -- first reported by Politico and seen by AFP on Tuesday -- calls for the appointment of a nuclear power czar to select two commercial proposals within six months, framing the push as crucial to outpacing a joint Chinese-Russian effort. Signed by acting NASA chief Sean Duffy, who is also US transportation secretary, the July 31 memo is the latest sign of the agency's shift towards prioritizing human space exploration over scientific research under President Donald Trump's second term. "Since March 2024, China and Russia have announced on at least three occasions a joint effort to place a reactor on the Moon by the mid-2030s," it says. "The first country to do so could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first." The idea of using nuclear energy off-planet is not new. Since 2000, NASA has invested $200 million towards developing small, lightweight fission power systems, though none have progressed towards flight readiness, according to the directive. The most recent effort came in 2023 with the completion of three $5 million industry study contracts that focused on generating 40 kilowatts of power, enough to continuously run 30 households for ten years. Unlike solar power, fission systems can operate around the clock -- invaluable during the weeks-long lunar nights or Martian dust storms. Advances in technology have made such systems increasingly compact and lightweight. NASA formally committed to using nuclear power on Mars in December 2024 -- the first of seven key decisions necessary for human exploration of the Red Planet. Based on feedback by industry, surface power needs should be at least 100 kilowatts to support "long-term human operations including in-situ resource utilization," meaning things like life support, communications, and mining equipment to collect surface ice. It assumes the use of a "heavy class lander" that carries up to 15 metric tons of mass, and targets a "readiness to launch by the first quarter of FY30," meaning late 2029. NASA's Artemis program to return to the Moon and establish a lasting presence near the south pole has faced repeated delays. The timeline for Artemis 3, the first planned crewed landing, has slipped to 2027, a date few see as realistic given the planned lander, SpaceX's Starship, is far from ready. China meanwhile is targeting 2030 for its first crewed mission and has proven more adept at meeting its deadlines in recent years.
