Trump says Gabbard was 'wrong' about Iran and Israeli strikes could be 'very hard to stop'

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard , was 'wrong' when she previously said that the U.S. believed Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon, and he suggested that it would be 'very hard to stop' Israel's strikes on Iran in order to negotiate a possible ceasefire.

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Washington Post

6 minutes ago

• Washington Post

Democrats are at odds over the Israel-Iran war as Trump considers intervening

After nearly two years of stark divisions over the war in Gaza and support for Israel, Democrats are now finding themselves at odds over U.S. policy toward Iran as progressives demand unified opposition to President Donald Trump's consideration of a strike against Tehran's nuclear program while party leaders tread more cautiously.

Associated Press

8 minutes ago

• Associated Press

GOP's food stamp plan is found to violate Senate rules. It's the latest setback for Trump's big bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — In another blow to the Republicans' tax and spending cut bill, the Senate parliamentarian has advised that a proposal to shift some food stamps costs from the federal government to states — a centerpiece of GOP savings efforts — would violate the chamber's rules. While the parliamentarian's rulings are advisory, they are rarely, if ever, ignored. The Republican leadership was scrambling on Saturday, days before voting is expected to begin on President Donald Trump's package that he wants to be passed into law by the Fourth of July. The loss is expected to be costly to Republicans. They have been counting on some tens of billions of potential savings from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, to help offset the costs of the $4.5 trillion tax breaks plan. The parliamentarian let stand for now a provision that would impose new work requirements for older Americans, up to age 65, to receive food stamp aid. 'We will keep fighting to protect families in need,' said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, which handles the SNAP program. 'The Parliamentarian has made clear that Senate Republicans cannot use their partisan budget to shift major nutrition assistance costs to the states that would have inevitably led to major cuts,' she said. The parliamentarian's ruling is the latest in a series of setbacks as staff works through the weekend, often toward midnight, to assess the 1,000-page proposal. It all points to serious trouble ahead for the bill, which was approved by the House on a party-line vote last month over unified opposition from Democrats and is now undergoing revisions in the Senate. At its core, the goal of the multitrillion-dollar package is to extend tax cuts from Trump's first term that would otherwise expire if Congress fails to act. It also adds new ones, including no taxes on tips and or overtime pay. To help offset the costs of lost tax revenue, the Republicans are proposing cutbacks to federal Medicaid, health care and food programs — some $1 trillion. Additionally, the package boosts national security spending by about $350 billion, including to pay for Trump's mass deportations, which are running into protests nationwide. Trump has implored Republicans, who have the majority in Congress, to deliver on his top domestic priority, but the details of the package, with its hodge-podge of priorities, is drawing deeper scrutiny. All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package, as approved by the House, would add at least $2.4 trillion to the nation's red ink over the decade and leave 10.9 million more people without health care coverage. Additionally, it would reduce or eliminate food stamps for more than 3 million people. The parliamentarian's office is tasked with scrutinizing the bill to ensure it complies with the so-called Byrd Rule, which is named after the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, and bars many policy matters in the budget reconciliation process now being used. Late Friday, the parliamentarian issued its latest findings. It determined that Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee's proposal to have the states pick up more of the tab for covering food stamps — what Republicans call a new cost-sharing arrangement — would be in violation of the Byrd Rule. Many lawmakers said the states would not be able to absorb the new requirement on food aid, which has long been provided by the federal government. They warned many would lose access to SNAP benefits used by more than 40 million people. Initially, the CBO had estimated about $128 billion in savings under the House's proposal to shift SNAP food aid costs to the states. Cost estimates for the Senate's version, which made changes to the House approach, have not yet been made publicly available. The parliamentarian's office rulings leave GOP leaders with several options. They can revise the proposals to try to comply with Senate rules or strip them from the package altogether. They can also risk a challenge during floor voting, which would require the 60-vote threshold to overcome. That would be unlikely in the split chamber with Democrats opposing the overall package. The parliamentarian's latest advice also said the committee's provision to make certain immigrants ineligible for food stamps would violate the rule. It found several provisions from the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which is led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to be in violation. They include one to provide $250 million to Coast Guard stations damaged by fire in 2025, namely one on South Padre Island in Texas. Still to come are some of the most important rulings from the parliamentarian. One will assess the GOP's approach that relies on 'current policy' rather than 'current law' as the baseline for determining whether the bill will add to the nation's deficits. Already, the parliamentarian delivered a serious setback Thursday, finding that the GOP plan to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was a core proposal coming from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, would be in violation of the Byrd Rule. The parliamentarian has also advised of violations over provisions from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that would rollback Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards on certain vehicles and from the Senate Armed Services Committee to require the defense secretary to provide a plan on how the Pentagon intends to spend the tens of billions of new funds. The new work requirements in the package would require many of those receiving SNAP or Medicaid benefits to work 80 hours a month or engage in other community or educational services.

10 minutes ago

How targeting Iran's nuclear facilities could impact the environment

The destruction of uranium enrichment sites that support Iran's nuclear program would not likely have severe environmental consequences, several nuclear experts told ABC News. Israel has stated that its attack on Iran is aimed at destroying its capabilities of producing nuclear weapons, alleging that the uranium enrichment sites within Iran are producing materials to make a nuclear weapon. Facilities across Iran range from those extracting uranium to processing facilities where the uranium is transformed into the right chemical form before it goes through the process of enrichment -- or increasing the quantity or concentration, Kathryn Ann Higley, distinguished professor of nuclear science and engineering at Oregon State University and president of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, told ABC News. "Iran would deny that those are nuclear weapon facilities," Matthew Bunn, who leads nuclear policy research at Harvard University, told ABC News. "They're nuclear facilities for sure. Iran claims they're for producing civilian fuel." The enrichment sites are located in Fordo, deep inside a mountain in northwestern Iran, and in Natanz -- which was targeted by military strikes last week. Other facilities targeted include the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, used for metallic uranium production, and the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Israel confirmed that they struck Isfahan again Friday night, targeting centrifuge production areas. While the conflict is concerning, radioactivity as a result of the military strikes is not a top concern, nuclear experts say. "There's plenty to worry about in the Iran-Israel war, but the release of radioactivity is not one of them," Lee Berstein, a professor in the nuclear engineering department at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News. Uranium isn't radioactive enough to present a widespread threat The sites targeted so far in Iran contain centrifuges that spin really fast and separate and enrich uranium into a higher grade, Emily A. Caffrey, director for the Health Physics Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told ABC News. However, the rule of thumb with radioactive materials is, the longer the half life, the less dangerous it tends to be in the short-term, Berstein said. But even materials with long half-lives can be hazardous over longer periods of time. The half life of Uranium-235 is more than 700 million years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is radiological and chemical contamination at the Natanz facility, where an above-ground portion of the fuel enrichment plant was damaged after a military strike on June 13, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi told the United Nations Security Council on Friday. The facility likely contained canisters of uranium hexafluoride gas that was released into the environment as a large gas cloud once it was hit, Caffrey said. Uranium hexafluoride is the main risk stemming from the uranium enrichment sites, Di Fulvio said. The gas results from the separating of uranium that is essentially a "precursor" of nuclear fuel. But those gas clouds do not have the ability to cause long-term contamination or radioactive issues, Caffrey said. "It's just a big, heavy gas molecule, so it's not going to go very far," Caffrey said. Enrichment operates at very low pressure, almost near-vacuum pressure, Bunn said, adding that the centrifuges themselves have very little uranium hexafluoride. The canisters would contain the majority of the gas. While there is destruction at multiple sites -- including Natanz, Isfahan and Arak as well as sites in Tehran -- there are no sites where radiological activity has been identified outside facilities, Grossi said. No radiation leaks were reported at Natanz during previous incidents in which the facility sustained damage in 2020 and 2021 -- the latter being a cyber attack, said Angela Di Fulvio, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and director of the Arms Control Domestic and International Security Program. How far radiation spreads from any particular release depends on the weather -- wind in particular, but also rain, Bunn said. If hexafluoride interacts with water, it can create hydrofluoric acid, causing some chemical issues but not radioactive ones, Caffrey said. "There are a lot of countries that have borders on the Persian Gulf that would not want to see the water in the Gulf contaminated by clouds of radioactive particles blowing in the wind passing over the coasts," said John Erath, senior policy director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. However, uranium hexafluoride appears to be confined within the facilities that were targeted and is manageable with appropriate procedures and safety precautions, Di Fulvio said. Over time, the leaked uranium hexafluoride would get diluted and diffuse out of the environment, Higley said. How does exposure to uranium affect the human body If ingested or inhaled, uranium hexafluoride gas -- in which each of the molecules has six fluorine atoms -- can cause kidney damage, Caffrey said. Atoms combined with a heavy metal can be a "really toxic substance," but usually in large quantities, Bunn said. "You would need to inhale or imbibe a humongous amount of it into your body in order for there to be any effect," Berstein said. The danger isn't radioactivity but rather the heavy metals, Bernstein said. Another 'Chernobyl' situation is unlikely, experts say The 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl likely wouldn't be replicated, even if one of the nuclear reactors in Iran were targeted by military strikes, the experts said. "The Chernobyl disaster was a very special event that was a result of a really badly designed power plant," Bernstein said. Israel and the U.S. are likely being very cognizant of avoiding the nuclear reactors due to the potential disaster that could result if they are hit, Erath said. Nuclear reactors are also now solidly built and would require a large amount of fire power -- such as the U.S. military's massive bunker-buster bombs -- to cause an explosion, the experts said. One of the factors that exacerbated the Chernobyl disaster was a design flaw within the nuclear reactor that exploded, Bernstein said, adding that the design is no longer used. Striking Iran's nuclear reactors -- used to generate nuclear power -- wouldn't release nearly as much radioactive material as Chernobyl, the experts said. The Khondab reactor was under construction and did not contain fuel or other nuclear materials when it was hit on Thursday, according to the IAEA. The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, a 1,000-megawatt facility built by Russia, has also been a focus of recent concern, Di Fulvio said. Expulsion of radioactive materials from Bushehr could result from one of three ways: a direct hit by a rocket or missile; damage to the pool of water where spent fuel, the radioactive nuclear fuel that has been removed after it has generated electricity, is stored for cooling; and if the electricity supplied to the plant is interrupted and the plant loses all backup means to generate electricity, M.V. Ramana, a physicist and professor at the University of British Columbia's school of public policy and global affairs, told ABC News. "Although the Israeli military might not be deliberately targeting Bushehr, it is a possibility given the extensive bombing that Iran has been subject to," Ramana said. Grossi warned that the Bushehr nuclear facility might be hit, saying that this would be, "the nuclear site in Iran where the consequences of an attack could be most serious." "It is an operating nuclear power plant and as such it hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material, Grossi said. This plant is used for energy production and not for uranium enrichment, Di Fulvio said. Iran is required to return spent fuel rods from Bushehr back to Russia when they are safe for transport.