Trump hints at regime change in Iran after strikes on nuclear facilities
US President Donald Trump has hinted at a regime change to 'Make Iran Great Again' following America's strikes on three of the country's nuclear facilities.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
32 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Did trucks remove nuclear assets before the US struck Iranian sites?
In an already fraying global world order, the US attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities have heightened fears of a potentially cataclysmic descent into further violence. So far analysts and experts are struggling to grasp the full implications of the attacks. There remain far more unknowns than knowns. Here are some of the key questions. Were Iran's nuclear sites obliterated? We don't know. Announcing the strikes, US president Donald Trump said Iranian nuclear enrichment capacity had been 'completely and totally obliterated', but at a Pentagon briefing held later, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran's 'nuclear ambitions' had been obliterated. Moments later Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Dan Caine said damage assessments would take some time. 'Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.' The world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has released a statement saying that at Iran's main location for enriching uranium to 60 per cent, craters were visible that were consistent with the US statement. 'At this time, no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordow,' it said. The IAEA said other buildings were hit at the Esfahan nuclear site, including some related to the uranium conversion process, and that entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appeared to have been hit. At a third site, the Natanz enrichment site, the fuel enrichment plant had been hit again. The US confirmed that it used ground-penetrating munitions. The IAEA said Iran had informed it there had been no increase in off-site radiation levels at any of the three sites.
The Age
37 minutes ago
- The Age
Did trucks remove nuclear assets before the US struck Iranian sites?
In an already fraying global world order, the US attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities have heightened fears of a potentially cataclysmic descent into further violence. So far analysts and experts are struggling to grasp the full implications of the attacks. There remain far more unknowns than knowns. Here are some of the key questions. Were Iran's nuclear sites obliterated? We don't know. Announcing the strikes, US president Donald Trump said Iranian nuclear enrichment capacity had been 'completely and totally obliterated', but at a Pentagon briefing held later, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran's 'nuclear ambitions' had been obliterated. Moments later Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Dan Caine said damage assessments would take some time. 'Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction.' The world's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has released a statement saying that at Iran's main location for enriching uranium to 60 per cent, craters were visible that were consistent with the US statement. 'At this time, no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordow,' it said. The IAEA said other buildings were hit at the Esfahan nuclear site, including some related to the uranium conversion process, and that entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appeared to have been hit. At a third site, the Natanz enrichment site, the fuel enrichment plant had been hit again. The US confirmed that it used ground-penetrating munitions. The IAEA said Iran had informed it there had been no increase in off-site radiation levels at any of the three sites.
The Age
37 minutes ago
- The Age
Can this ugly elf make China cool again?
The shift may be in large part because global views of the United States have taken such a nose-dive since President Donald Trump's second term began. Morning Consult said that American favourability had fallen far faster than enthusiasm for China had risen in that period. Given the 'alarmingly isolationist turn of the US,' said Ying Zhu, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who studies American and Chinese soft power, China looked 'stable and steady in comparison'. But China has also been trying to build its soft power in its own right, alongside its economic and military might. China's leader, Xi Jinping, has said that the country should work to 'reshape' the international conversation in China's favour. Broader appeal in pop culture, or as a travel destination, would bolster its claim to being an alternative to the United States for global leadership. Within China, that effort has been successful. Many Chinese now turn to homegrown brands and stars instead of the Western ones they once idolised. Labubu dolls have sold out so quickly that some Chinese have taken to smuggling in dolls bought overseas to resell them. Last week, a human-size Labubu sculpture sold at an auction in Beijing for $US150,000. There are signs some overseas fans of Labubu are engaging more with other Chinese products. On Reddit, users swap tips for ordering dolls or outfits on AliExpress and other Chinese e-commerce platforms. They express concern about American tariffs on Chinese imports. Loading After Sue Aw, 30, visited Shanghai last year from Australia in part to find Labubu dolls (they were sold out), she now wants to visit China again later this year. She wanted to see other cities, and to buy more of Chinese clothing brands she had discovered. Her friends in Australia have also 'definitely seen China in a more positive light after the level of craze' around Labubu, she said. But for other Labubu lovers, the doll's Chinese origins seem unimportant, or even pass unnoticed. (In fact, while Pop Mart is a Chinese company, the character itself was designed by a Hong Kong-born artist raised in the Netherlands.) In Western markets, Pop Mart has collaborated with Disney and Marvel. Some Chinese social media users have joked that the doll is so popular in the United States — where wraparound lines have developed at malls — because people there don't know it is Chinese. For many Americans, the appeal of Labubu seems to be just as much, or perhaps more, about its ingenious marketing: its scarcity, its frequent use of 'blind box' packaging, in which buyers don't know which of several elves they will receive. Even so, the growing presence of Chinese companies worldwide is itself a form of soft power, said Huang Rihan, a professor at Huaqiao University in Fujian province who has studied China's messaging overseas. He pointed to how companies such as Pop Mart, Tencent or Alibaba have hired employees of different nationalities, in offices all around the world. Huang said that China's biggest soft-power successes had come from young Chinese entrepreneurs having the freedom to engage globally and experiment. Pop Mart's chief executive, Wang Ning, is just 33, and has said that he wants the brand to work with artists from around the world. 'In the realm of culture, I think the government should loosen its grip,' Huang said. Loading Indeed, a bigger challenge for China's soft power efforts may be how eager Chinese authorities are to claim them. Repeated official calls to boost soft power suggest a belief that trendiness can be manufactured if the government just tries hard enough. Sometimes that eagerness can be merely cringeworthy (a recent People's Daily article called 'What Makes China 'Cool'' declared: ''Cool' is a term rooted in youth culture, typically associated with what is fashionable') or propagandistic (China's cool, another article said, came from 'building a community with a shared future for mankind' — a slogan of Xi). Government involvement, whether real or perceived, can also be more directly off-putting. When a Chinese company promoted Wukong, the blockbuster video game, last year to overseas streamers, it instructed them to avoid topics such as 'feminist propaganda' or the coronavirus pandemic — terms that the government censors heavily.
