World
Israel prepares for Iran attack amid warnings that regime is close to having nuclear weapon: 'Unnerving'
JERUSALEM – As Iran ramps up its threats to launch a massive attack against U.S. ally Israel and possibly American assets in the region, the rogue regime in Tehran is on the cusp of producing a nuclear bomb.
Late last month, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said after having reviewed a Director of National Intelligence report on Iran’s atomic program, “I believe it is a certainty that if we do not change course, Iran will in the coming weeks or months possess a nuclear weapon.” He added, “Iran will keep going until someone tells them to stop. It is time to put red lines on their nuclear program. The idea of ambiguity is not working.”
Graham termed the findings in the DNI report “unnerving” and said Iran’s “ability to weaponize material has advanced” with respect to a nuclear weapons device.
Just weeks before Graham’s dramatic announcement about Iran being on the brink of nuclear-armed weapons status, he sent a strongly worded letter to DNI head Avril Haines, stating,”You are in violation of the law” over her vehement opposition to disclosing sensitive information to Congress on Iran’s nuclear progress. In 2022, Congress passed a law requiring the government to provide updates on Iran’s atomic program. Haines eventually complied after Graham went public in the media.
ISRAEL’S ‘SWORN ENEMY’ HEZBOLLAH TELLS IRAN IT WOULD FIGHT ALONE IF CONFLICT ESCALATES
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran, April 4, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
Graham told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on July 31 that there is no Hamas or Hezbollah without Iran’s regime. He urged Israel to launch attacks against Iran’s oil refineries, with the view toward stopping Iranian jingoism. In April, Iran launched over 300 missiles, drones and rockets into Israel.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told Fox News Digital, “As the President and the Secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
“We will continue working with Congress to use a variety of tools in pursuit of that goal and all options remain on the table.”
Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, on Nov. 10, 2019. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The spokesperson added, “The intelligence community continues to assess that the Supreme Leader has not made any decision to restart the nuclear weapons program that Iran halted in 2003. That said, we remain deeply concerned with Iran’s continued expansion of nuclear activities in ways that have no credible civilian purpose and continue to vigilantly monitor them.”
However, Fox News Digital reported in July 2023 that intelligence reports from European states contradict the Biden administration’s assertion that Iran’s regime has not restarted its atomic weapons program. Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service (AIVD) assessed Tehran’s development of weapons-grade uranium “brings the option of a possible [Iranian] first nuclear test closer.”
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the media during elections in Tehran, Iran, on May 10, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
When asked about critics who claim Biden has not enforced oil and gas sanctions against Iran’s regime, the State Department spokesman said, “The Biden Administration has not lifted a single sanction on Iran. Rather, we continue to increase pressure. Our extensive sanctions on Iran remain in place, and we continue to enforce them. Over the last three years, the United States has sanctioned over 700 individuals and entities connected to the full range of Iran’s reckless and destabilizing behaviors.”
Republican lawmakers and Iran experts have slammed the Biden administration for alleged appeasement toward the mullah regime with respect to unfreezing tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
The State Department spokesperson said, “Since 2021, we have sanctioned dozens of individuals and entities across multiple jurisdictions, including the PRC, UAE, and Southeast Asia for roles in the production, sale, and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products. And we have identified as blocked property numerous vessels involved in this trade. “
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David Albright, physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, “Sen. Graham’s statement of being unnerved is good to hear. The IC assessment has been flawed ever since its 2007 National Intelligence Estimate.”
Albright is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on Iran’s nuclear program. He said, “Sen. Graham mentioned that some advances had occurred in Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons, i.e. weaponize the weapon-grade uranium into a nuclear weapon, but his comment was sparse and devoid of substance. It is in this area, however, where new intelligence community assessments may or may not lurk. But I cannot weigh in on this based on what the senator said.”
A military truck carries a missile past a portrait of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an annual military parade. (Atta Kenare/AFP/GettyImages))
Albright worked closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Action Team from 1992 until 1997, focusing on Iraqi documents and past procurement activities. In 1996, he served as the first non-governmental inspector of the Iraqi nuclear program.
Albright said, “It is clear that the DNI report included a short timeframe for Iran to produce a significant quantity of weapon-grade uranium, but this is old news and well-established by the IAEA in its quarterly reports and some standard calculations. The new twist is Iran’s recent expansion at the deeply buried Fordow site, which gives Iran a new ability to produce significant quantities of weapon-grade uranium in days at this site. But again, we have reported on this.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in July about Iran’s quest to obtain a nuclear weapon, “Instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, (Iran) is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that.”
NETANYAHU REPORTEDLY UPSET WITH HARRIS OVER VP’S ISRAEL REMARKS AS WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel in Tehran for the unveiling of a missile during a military rally on Nov. 24, 2023. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
When asked about the breakout concept, Albright said, “Breakout is usually defined as the time for Iran to produce enough weapon-grade for a single nuclear weapon. It has been measured in days rather than months for many months, based on IAEA reporting in its quarterly reports and standard calculational methods, which we have regularly published and the studies are on our website.”
He continued, “A common assessment, which we share, is that Iran has not made a formal decision to build nuclear weapons, so it has also not made a decision to breakout and produce weapon-grade uranium.”
“Breakout is not typically used to discuss the entire time Iran would need to produce its first nuclear weapon,” Albright noted. “This timeframe depends on the breakout above but also on what type of weapon would Iran build. Our assessment is that Iran could build a crude nuclear explosive, deliverable by truck, or able to be exploded underground in six months. It would need longer, perhaps six more months in a crash program to be able to mount a reliable nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.”
Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Department State adviser on Iran, told Fox News Digital, “Iran has been decreasing its nuclear enrichment breakout time over the past five years, but that’s different than them actually making the decision to go and rush toward a bomb. However, they love the flexibility and leverage that being this close brings them – especially now that they are under two weeks away from having enough enriched uranium, and haven’t suffered any significant consequences as a result.”
An arch glorifying Hezbollah shows pictures of its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, and Iran’s Ali Khamenei in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on Jan. 16, 2011. (Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)
He added, “However, it is much less clear how close Iran’s weaponization program has come to both building a weapon and being able to pair it on a missile that could reach Israel or other American allies. What’s clear from Sen. Graham’s press conference is that Iran keeps on getting closer and closer on this part of its nuclear program.”
Noronha, who is also a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), urged “Biden to have a clear and credible red line that further progress toward a nuclear weapon would be met with a military response. But he should only make a threat like that if he is willing to back it up with action. If President Biden really wants to avoid military action, then he needs to roll out every possible diplomatic and economic consequence in the interim to punish and deter Iran from proceeding any further.”
World
Author Amy Griffin sues woman who alleged she stole her stories of sexual abuse in memoir ‘The Tell’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Author Amy Griffin sued a former classmate for defamation on Monday, saying the woman’s statements in a New York Times story and a subsequent lawsuit alleging Griffin appropriated her stories of sexual abuse for her bestselling 2025 memoir “The Tell” are false in “every element.”
Griffin’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada, says that in 2025 her former middle school classmate “told The New York Times — and through it, the world — that Amy Griffin is a fraud and a thief.”
The lawsuit says that in the woman’s telling, “Mrs. Griffin stole the rape of another woman and built a bestseller on it.”
A Times spokesperson said the lawsuit misrepresents its story and reporting. The former classmate said her account will prove true in court.
In “The Tell,” a hit that became an Oprah’s Book Club selection, Griffin, a venture capitalist and memoirist, recounts being sexually abused as a child by a teacher at her middle school in Amarillo, Texas, and writes that years later she recovered memories of the experience by undergoing therapy using the psychedelic drug MDMA.
The Times story published six months after the book included stories from a classmate who said some of Griffin’s experiences were eerily similar to her own. Then in March the woman filed a lawsuit in California state court, which Griffin is fighting and seeking to have dismissed.
The Associated Press doesn’t typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly or otherwise consent. The woman who sued Griffin filed her lawsuit as Jane Doe, and her name did not appear in the Times story.
Griffin says documentation backs her in every aspect
Griffin’s lawsuit says the most essential fact is that she put her account of her abuse in writing in 2020, and in 2021 she provided another detailed and documented account in an interview with the Amarillo Police Department. Both accounts match up with the book, and both came before Griffin is alleged to have extracted the woman’s abuse story by having someone posing as a talent agent call her in 2022, according to the lawsuit. The statute of limitations prevented the criminal investigation from moving forward.
Griffin’s lawsuit says the woman falsely claimed to be another middle school classmate who appears in “The Tell” under the pseudonym “Claudia,” whose meeting with the author is recounted in the book. The lawsuit Griffin had not talked to the woman in more than 35 years, had never been part of the same church youth group as alleged, and was demonstrably not in the Palm Springs area in 2019 — or the years before or after — when the woman claims the two of them met for coffee.
Griffin’s lawsuit says the coffee shop conversation with “Claudia” took place thousands of miles away in the presence of a collaborator, and that the woman in the Times story had been unable to produce any evidence the meeting with her had taken place.
Accuser says this is an attempt to silence her
In an email to The Associated Press sent through her lawyers, the woman said the shame and humiliation from her sexual assault were unimaginable and she was “violated all over again after reading about my own experiences in Amy’s book.”
“Despite trying to remain anonymous, Amy has now chosen to use her immense wealth and influence to try and silence me,” the email said. “She has had her lawyers identify me publicly as well as sue me. I am shocked and disappointed that she would choose to take this route, especially since she herself knows the truth.”
Griffin’s lawsuit seeks a declaration that the allegations that she stole the woman’s abuse stories are false, along with financial damages to be determined at trial.
New York Times stands by its reporting and story
Griffin’s lawsuit, while not naming the Times as a defendant, is harshly critical of the paper, saying it “deemed the story too good to scrutinize” despite Griffin’s lawyers making it clear the woman’s account was “demonstrably false.”
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email to the AP that the lawsuit and related filings “repeatedly misrepresent The New York Times story and its reporting,” and that the article “is markedly different in key aspects put forth” in both women’s lawsuits.
Rhoades points out that many of the allegations Griffin is pushing back against did not appear in the Times’ story, including that the woman they spoke to was “Claudia,” or that a person posing as a talent agent on Griffin’s behalf called to get her stories of abuse.
And Rhoades said the Times story did not say Griffin “misappropriated” the woman’s story, and she said claims that the reporters did not vet their story are false, and that they “engaged extensively with Ms. Griffin’s legal representatives prior to publication including meticulous fact checking.”
“Our story was about a publishing phenomenon, the reliability of memories recovered while under the influence of MDMA and the impact of a bestselling memoir on the author’s hometown,” Rhoades said. “Our reporters’ only agenda was to pursue the facts, including corroboration of accounts from all sources.”
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Officials on Monday revealed new details about a series of arson attacks targeting properties connected to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, alleging the suspects were recruited and directed by a Russian-speaking handler.
According to police and court reporting, the suspects were promised payment to carry out a coordinated campaign in London in May 2025, including attacks involving a vehicle and two properties linked to Starmer.
A new investigation reported that the handler is believed to be a diplomat trained in information warfare and part of a broader Russian sabotage and disinformation operation directed from Moscow, according to the Kyiv Post.
Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, were convicted in connection with the arson plot after Lavrynovych was recruited by a Russian-speaking Telegram handler known as “El Money,” according to police and court reporting. Kyiv Post reported that Carpiuc was also born in Ukraine. A third defendant, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted.
BRITISH POLICE INVESTIGATE FIRE AT PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER’S LONDON HOME
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a meeting on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP via Getty Images))
According to police, Lavrynovych was recruited through Telegram by a Russian-speaking handler saved in his phone contacts as “El Money,” who allegedly directed him through a series of increasingly serious tasks while promising payment in return.
“Look, you attacked the home of a very high-ranking person in Britain. I’ll send you the money you need to leave the city,” the handler allegedly wrote in one message cited by investigators, according to Kyiv Post.
BRITAIN INTRODUCES SWEEPING NEW POWERS TO TARGET FOREIGN STATE-LINKED GROUPS INCLUDING IRAN’S IRGC
Officials arrest a Ukrainian man who was later found guilty of setting on fire houses linked to U.K. Prime Minister Starmer. (Metropolitan Police)
The handler reportedly offered Lavrynovych Russian citizenship in exchange for carrying out the attacks and frequently voiced support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the outlet. Evidence also suggested that “El Money” was trained in information warfare by propagandists and intelligence operatives, the outlet said.
Investigators added that Russian operatives allegedly coordinated the campaign remotely through social media platforms and Telegram, using fake far-right and Muslim online communities to sow division and fear in the U.K., Kyiv Post said.
The Russian Embassy has reportedly denied any involvement, rejecting “any attempt to associate Russia or its foreign ministry with unlawful activities,” according to the report.
SYNAGOGUE IN LONDON TARGETED IN ATTEMPTED ‘ANTISEMITIC HATE CRIME,’ UK POLICE SAY
Police officers stand outside Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s private home, after it was damaged by fire in a suspected arson attack in north London, Britain, May 13, 2025. (REUTERS/Toby Melville)
According to officials, the three arson attacks occurred over a five-day period in May 2025.
The first attack took place on May 8, when a Toyota vehicle formerly owned by Starmer was set ablaze.
A second fire was set on May 11 at the entrance of a residential property that was managed by a company in which Starmer had previously served as a director and shareholder.
The third attack occurred on May 12 at a house that is owned by the prime minister.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a video conference meeting outside Moscow on April 7, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
“The actions of the two men involved in these arson attacks were incredibly reckless, and it was sheer luck that nobody was killed or injured,” Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in a statement.
Police said Lavrynovych was arrested on May 13 last year after detectives linked the suspect to the attacks through CCTV footage and phone records indicating he had conducted reconnaissance ahead of the fires.
Authorities said Carpiuc was arrested on May 17 in the departure lounge at Luton Airport moments before boarding a flight to Romania.
Updated:
Iran outmanoeuvred US President Donald Trump “like a violin” in negotiations, walking away with far better terms after sensing his desperation for a deal to end the war, former National Security Adviser John Bolton told Euronews.
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