Engulfing New York With A Socialist Tidal Wave

"I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality."

"[New York is] the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty." 

"Globalise the intifada [is] a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." 

"I have already to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I am fighting for." 

"Why is it that there are five or six fast food restaurants in a five-block radius, but I can’t find anywhere where I can actually afford to buy groceries?"

"What this [proposed] network of municipally-owned grocery stores would provide is a guarantee of cheaper groceries and a recognition that food is a non-negotiable for New Yorkers."

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York  

Mamdani made history last week as the first Muslim American to win a mayoral primary race in New York City   Bloomberg via Getty Images

"What you've built goes far beyond New York City." 

"You've captured the imagination of progressives everywhere with a blueprint for how we can win: with hope, with values, and with the belief that politics can be a force for good."

"We're watching -- and we're inspired."

Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP leader  

He is 33 years old, has held American citizenship for all of seven years. And he has won a primary to be the Democratic representative in a ballot for mayor of the wealthiest, most populous city in the United States, a huge proportion of which are Jewish New Yorkers. He is also held to be a rampant antisemite, although he denies it. He does champion the 'Palestinian cause' and faults Israel. He represents the most progressive of the democratic movement in the United States and he feels he is able to diagnose all the ills of American society and in the process change the culture to reflect what many call a communist ideal.

 

 

 

Openly socialist, he champions the very essence of far-left causes, beloved of radicals that cling to the socialist ideal. His sudden appearance as the successful nominee for the city's November mayoral election has been a shock to many and a celebratory event to many others. At the present time he appears favoured to win the city government mayoralty. This is not just any American city; it is the most vitally important financial and cultural centre anywhere on Earth. Seated as mayor this man has the potential to become the most influentially prominent of American politicians.

 

Andrew Cuomo, once lionized as New York's progressive mayor who impressed Americans during his  tenure with his leadership before falling into disfavour, appeared not to have stood a chance against this personality cult campaign he was unable to compete with, a vibrant personality prized by the young and disaffected, and those for whom life's expenses were a drain on their expectations of the future. 

 

His supporters celebrate his promises of free transit, public daycare and government services to New Yorkers, all paid for by draining the wealth of rich New Yorkers. Law and order, as far as he is concerned can look after itself, with a reduction in the number of NYPD police. And nor will prisons be needed under his administration, since solving poverty will also solve the commission of crime. The 'progressive prosecutors' and public disorder solutions will carry on as before. 

 

Skilled in non-English languages, Mamdani was able to reach out  to those for whom English is not their mother tongue, in a city and a country increasingly beset with illegal immigration and migrant penetration. His attention to foreign conflicts greatly appeals to many of that segment of the population in this sanctuary city that takes Emma Lazarus's 'New Colossus' more seriously than ever: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".

 

His winning political ways scrutinizing far-off conflicts makes him a critic of Israel, refusing to condemn the phrase "Globalize the Intifada", with all its glorious connotations of destroying Israel, and handing the territory vacated over to the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians in favour of inheriting by force the ancestral homeland of ancient Judea. Mamdani's supporters and admirers are also those who admire and support Hamas, big surprise.

 

In the best progressive manner conceivable, the prospective New York mayor supports the use of public funds to subsidize transgender health care, supports sexual minority rights, typifying modern left-wing populism with its aspiration to tax the wealthy under a government planning to seize power to manipulate the economy to its liking. And that liking extends to rent caps, subsidized public housing and free city government services. 

 

In the process the new city council under its new mayor will succeed in driving out capital with its hostility to private wealth management, along with its averse attitude to law enforcement. The smiling man that now basks in the adoration of New York's disaffected whose cost of living agony demands rescue, is prepared to introduce socialism on steroids to the most interesting, dynamic city in the world.  

 

New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) speaks to supporters during an election night gathering on June 24, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

 

 

The Dalai Lama Succession for Tibetan Buddhists

The Dalai Lama at the main Tibetan temple in Dharamsala, India, in September 2024 Credit: The New York Times/Redux

 

"Both the Dalai and Panchen Lamas are believed to be reincarnations of different aspects of the Buddha. In a relationship likened to the sun and the moon, over the centuries each has acted as mentor to the other, and often, but not always, played a key role in affirming the identification of the other’s reincarnation."

"...Following the regent’s instructions, a search party, travelling more than 400 miles on horseback, eventually came to the home of a young child named Lhamo Dondrub."

"The child was given a traditional test of being presented with a number of items, including a bowl and prayer beads, that had belonged to his predecessor, along with similar items that had not. In every case, the child correctly identified those belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama, saying “It’s mine. It’s mine…”."

"He was taken to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and installed in the Potala palace, the complex where the Dalai Lamas resided for centuries. He was just 15 when the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950 and he formally assumed the role as the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people."

Mick Brown, The Telegraph 

A painting by Kanwal Krishna of Tenzin Gyatso as a young boy, circa late 1930s Credit: Kanwal Krishna/AFP via Getty Images

 

 It has been close to seven decades since the Dalai Lama led tens of thousands of his faithful followers on a journey out of Tibet, their ancestral home, following its invasion and absorption by China, to establish a nation in exile, in India. In the Indian Himalaya, as the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama established his democracy, including a parliament and a bureaucracy encouraging a culture of service within his retinue of a scattered people.

 

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (centre, white horse), fled Tibet for India after the Chinese invasion of 1959 Credit: Pictures from History/Universal Images Group Editorial

  

Across India, the administration the Dalai Lama established operates Tibetan schools, clinics, monasteries, agricultural cooperatives and old-age homes. Exiled Tibetan face the anxiety of uncertainty in their stateless nation as they contemplate the future beyond the presence of the now-90-year-old Dalai Lama who is becoming increasingly frail. He had doubtless hoped to return his people to their homeland within his lifetime, a desire that remains far from the potential of realization. 

 

China remains determined to crush whatever remains of the Tibetan movement for autonomy. "We are  hoping for the best but preparing for the worst", Tsering Yangchen, a member of Tibet's parliament in exile said in exasperated resignation. The Dalai Lama has promised to reveal a plan to decide on his successor, by July 6, his birth-date. A plan that faces its own bedevilling complexity in the face of China's attempts to control the process.

 

Tibetan tradition has it that the search for a reincarnated Dalai Lama to become the current one's successor, begins only when the incumbent passes away. Once the successor Dalai Lama is identified as an infant, a gap of close to two decades can occur until he is groomed and prepared to fill his destined position of divine authority. The Dalai Lama has decided his successor will be one born in a free country, among Tibetan exiles, numbering some 140,000, half residing in India. To add to the mystery, he alludes his successor could be an adult, not necessarily male.

 

At the age of six, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised by the Dalai Lama as the 11th incarnation of the Panchen Lama in 1995. He and his parents were seized days later Credit: Pictures from History/Universal Images Group Editorial

 

China has its own ideas of how to proceed. After the 10th Panchen Lama -- the second highest spiritual figure in Tibet Buddhism died in 1989, the boy the Dalai Lama recognized as the successor was kidnapped in Tibet at age six, and never since seen nor heard of. China selected and promoted its own Panchen Lama; that Lama met with Xi Jinping earlier this month, reaffirming his allegiance to the Communist Party of China.

 

Following the 13th Dalai Lama's death in 1933, a search committee began the process of identifying a child to become the new spiritual leader of Tibet. Two years of searching resulted in the boy's discovery and he was moved to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. His education, his assumption of political leadership, was swiftly accomplished in recognition of the Chinese government tightening its grip around the autonomous region. When the inevitable occurred, the  young Dalai Lama led his followers in a long caravan of exile.

 

Tibetan activist and poet Tenzin Tsundue, warned that Chinese interference in the succession of the current Dalai Lama would run the risk of provoking unrest among the six million people within Tibet.

"The Dalai Lama has been out of his house and country for 65 years, and that has already created a great sense of pain, anger, frustration and disappointment among the Tibetans inside Tibet."

"This will, you know, burst into [a] volcano." 

 

Almost 90 years old, the Dalai Lama is transported in a golf cart (pictured attending a prayer offering ceremony in McLeod Ganj, near Dharamsala in June 2025) Credit: Sanjay Baid/AFP via Getty Images

 

 

Iran's Slap in The Face

"The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration."

"[Iran delivered a] slap in the face [with its airstrike on an American airbase in Qatar]." 

"[U.S. President Donald Trump claiming the attack] completely and fully obliterated Iran's nuclear program, had] exaggerated [its impact]."

"They could not achieve anything significant."

"[The United States] has gained nothing from this war. [American strikes] did nothing significant [to Iran’s nuclear facilities]." 

"The Islamic Republic won, and in retaliation dealt a severe slap to the face of America."

"Such an action can be repeated in the future, too. [Iran has] access to key US centers in the region and can take action whenever it deems necessary."

"Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price. Surrender will never happen. Our nation is powerful."

"[The US only intervened in the war because] it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed."

"I want to congratulate the great Iranian nation… for its victory over the fallacious Zionist regime."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

People film projectiles over Doha in Qatar on June 23, 2025, amid an Iranian attack on the largest US military base in the region. (AFP)

 

The Islamic Republic's Ayatollah Khamenei addressed his public in a recorded video broadcast on Iranian state television, appearing for the first time since June 19. In a hoarse voice, occasionally stumbling over his words, the 86-year-old spoke to the country's 90 million people of the great victory that the nation realized over its enemies, Israel and the United States following 12 days of aerial warfare.

 

Downplaying the significance of any damage to his nation's most important nuclear sites with the use of cruise missiles and bunker-buster bombs, he minimized any possible damage that might have occurred and spoke of Iran's powerful response to the indignity imposed upon it by its adversaries. In the process his ten-minute speech contained no references to Iran's nuclear program and the facilities' condition along with their centrifuges, following extensive Israeli and U.S. strikes.

 

Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency, on the other hand, repeated that the damage Israeli and American strikes at Iranian nuclear facilities "is very, very, very considerable. I think annihilated is too much, but it suffered enormous damage", IAEA director Grossi announced. Much as did Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman in conceding that the country's "nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure".  

 

Khamenei had gone into hiding in a secret location following the June13 outbreak of war when Israel launched an air invasion attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and in the process targeted elite military commanders and nuclear scientists. 

 

Israeli security forces inspect the site struck by an Iranian missile strike that killed several people, in Beersheba, Israel, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

 

For his part, President Trump, dismissed the retaliatory attack as a "very weak response". The U.S. had been forewarned by Iran itself, the result of which saw no casualties at the U.S. air base. The base, as it happened, had been emptied of both its American military personnel and the U.S. planes normally parked there, even prior to the Sunday B-2 bunker-buster attack on the Fordow facility and that of the Isfahan nuclear plant. 

 

Since then, following the calling of a ceasefire, normalcy in the social life of Iran has returned. Iran's airspace has been partially reopened and Tehran shops have opened for business,  traffic returning to its pre-attack normalcy. 

 

Over 550 missiles were fired at Israel by the Islamic Republic during the 12-day war. There was a 90 percent interception rate. For its part, Israel hit over 720 Iranian military infrastructure targets and eight nuclear related sites. 

 

A woman walks past a residential building that was hit in an Israeli strike covered with a big Iranian flag, in Tehran on June 25, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)

 

 

Europe: Preparing for War

"Russia emptied four brigades out of the Leningrad district to Ukraine, most of them actually killed."

"The reality is that when this war ends, Russia will start building up its soldiers on our border. But this is nothing new, it's not problematic."

"I'd ask people to stay cool, calm and collected. We know exactly what we're doing. We have full control over what's going on."

Finnish President Alexander Stubb

 

"The long term is just that Russia needs to take defence on the border with Finland more seriously now that Finland is a NATO member."

"If NATO and Russia go to war in the Baltics, the Finns aren't going to just sit there. They're likely going to counterattack and annex the Murmansk Peninsula – and the Russian nuclear forces and the Northern Fleet are all based in Murmansk."

"So the Finns can do quite a lot in terms of disrupting that by cutting the supply lines between St Petersburg and Murmansk."

Ed Arnold, senior research fellow for European security, International Security department, Royal United Services Institute defence think tank, United Kingdom

Before and after images from the Russian bases. Photo: Planet Labs PBC/Airbus /screenshot from SVT

 

Earlier this month Finland's public broadcaster, YLE reported the presence of a garrison being built for an artillery brigade by Russia, in a town close by the two countries' frontier. Half of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) land border is guarded by Finland against NATO's well-known adversary. A border that stretches out along over 1,300 kilometres.

 

There is a long history of conflict between Finland and Russia. As such, it is not surprising that Finland has been among the most dedicated European supporters and providers of military aide to Ukraine. In the face of Moscow's future intentions against Finland, its president states that his country remains "calm and collected", knowing through long experience what may be presenting for the not-too-distant future.

 

According to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, such preparations are of no surprise to NATO as well. The Kremlin, suggested Mr. Rutte, may be counting on a five-year opportunity when Russia's war imposed on Ukraine has been concluded, to turn its attention elsewhere, and Finland appears the most likely initial target.

 

Nordic officials have their own version of a potential timeline before such an attack takes place, giving it a shorter window, hastening preparations in the knowledge that Russia will focus on rebuilding its capacity to carry out a conventional attack on yet another of its neighbours. 

"Before 2022 there was an unmanned aerial vehicle regiment somewhat operating in the field – so it wasn’t totally abandoned. But it wasn’t being used for larger equipment such as helicopters."

"But now, after 2022, they have been refurbishing it, renovating it, clearing the overgrown areas – so it seems that they are intending to also ramp up their activities in that area too."

"We are seeing military activity, and we are seeing the Russians developing their military infrastructure and most likely training new soldiers. But it's not anything too radical at the moment."

"It's really difficult to say yet, because the war in Ukraine is still heavily ongoing, and achieving a truce seems to be extremely difficult. The future will show just how heavily the Russians will invest in all of this – military bases, new units, soldiers and so on. But as far as we know now, it's going to be significant."

Finnish military historian Emil Kastehelmi 

Finland’s border guard has completed the first 35km of a planned 200km fence on its eastern border with Russia. Photograph: Leonhard Föger/Reuters

 

Last week Finland's parliament approved a withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, banning anti-personnel landmines. The vote was 157 to 18 in Helsinki, when lawmakers firmly committed to back the government's proposal. The release from the convention was a political decision taken in April while addressing risks from Russia.

 

NATO leaders had agreed on a massive increase in defence spending for its member-states, each to pledge honouring a five percent gross domestic product to boost the 32-member-organizational military capacity in mutual defence against a common enemy. At the same time the group reiterated its "Ironclad commitment" to respond as a unified military group in defense of any of its members coming under attack. 

 

Some 175 kilometeres from the border, three large storage halls have been built in Petrozavodsk, each of which is judged to have the potential to  hold around fifty armed vehicles. As of April 2025, a fourth facility has been under construction. The new structures, according to analysts, may be intended to conceal an accurate number of the military vehicles to be stationed there.  

"[The developments appear to confirm earlier Russian statements about] military-technical measures [in response to NATO’s enlargement]."

"When we applied [Finland and Sweden] for NATO membership, Russia said it would take such steps. We are now seeing that happen."

Sweden’s Chief of Defence Michael Claesson 

 

"[The Russian government in April 2023 when Sweden and Finland jointed NATO, vowed to take] counter-measures."

"The enlargement of NATO is an encroachment on our security and on Russia’s national interests."

"We’re going to be following what happens in Finland closely … and how it threatens us."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov

"[The Finns’] whole position was … we need to be ready to be able to face the Russians on our own."

"So that's their mindset, and it's how their military is configured. They can get 284,000 troops on declaration of war. That's significant."

"That’s probably more than the UK can get together, probably more than Germany, more than France – probably more than anyone else bar Poland at the moment."

Ed Arnold, senior research fellow for European security

 

A Benevolent Uyghur Employment Opportunity in China?

"[Such allegations are] nothing but vicious lies concocted by anti-China forces. [The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is interference in China's internal affairs]."

"[All residents in Xinjiang] enjoy happy and fulfilling lives."

"Xinjiang-related issues are not human rights issues at all, but in essence about countering violent terrorism and separatism."

Washington Chinese Embassy 

 

"Uyghur society is going to be changed in the long term through labor transfer. So it's a long-term strategy, and that’s why China is doubling down on it."

"China is intensifying it because with labor transfer you can achieve cultural assimilation."

"You can achieve linguistic assimilation. You can break apart communities – traditional communities – and break apart families."

German Scholar Adrian Zenz, director, China Studies, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington

 

"The so-called forced labor is only a groundless accusation."

"Isn’t there any right to work for minority ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang?"

"If you make them unemployed, unable to work, and unable to sell their products under the pretext of forced labor, is this humane?"

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a speech at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 17, 2024. (Matthias Schrader/AP)

 

Supply-chain auditors and border and customs officials involved in identifying labour abuses and blocking import of tainted goods, appear to have little knowledge around China's more recent placement of Uyghurs from Xinjiang in factories across China, involved in the production of a wide range of goods that will be identified with brand-name products around the world. The United States and the European Union adopted laws to prevent consumers and businesses from funding the persecution of China's Uyghurs.

 

Tracking the relocation and treatment of workers from Xinjiang to factories across China is an endeavour vexed with practical difficulties, quite unlike targeting imports known to emanate from Xinjiang province. Tens of thousands of Uyghurs have been dispatched by China's government to work in factories located outside of Xinjiang. Although the workers earn salaries, labour conditions of their workplace are unknown. U.N. labour experts, scholars and activists claim the programs reflect well-documented patterns of forced labour.

 

According to China, participation by Uyghurs in these out-of-province, across-China programs is strictly voluntary. A great favour is being done the Uyghurs by the Beijing in moving them to workplaces across the country, in the process exposing them to economic opportunities, a situation that ends up addressing chronic poverty in Xinjiang. The rejoinder by experts and activists is that Uyghurs have little choice but to accept job assignments. 

 

The programs, they insist, fold into Beijing's design to exert control over a minority population  historically engaged in resisting Chinese rule. Uyghurs, a Central Asian, Muslim people live in Xinjiang, up to 12 million-strong, on the border with Kazakhstan.  

 

Two layers of barbed wire fencing ring the Hotan City apparel employment training base where Hetian Taida Apparel Co. has a factory, in northwestern China's Xinjiang region, Dec. 5, 2018. The U.S. blocked shipments from Hetian Taida in 2019 over accusations the manufacturer was using forced labor. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

 

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act bars imports into the United States from Xinjiang made with forced labour. Reports place forced labour in various places; prisons, mass internment camps and large-scale relocation programs regionally. The regional production of cotton, textiles, critical minerals and solar panels is involved. Videos demonstrate other Central Asian minorities from Xinjiang -- Kazakhs and Kyrgyz people included -- who also are persecuted, and the U.S. law covers their work production as well.

 

A number of discreetly interviewed workers hesitatingly suggest they labour under close supervision at arranged jobs, requiring permission to leave factory grounds, new on arrival. At some factories, security guards confirm Uyghur workers had been sent by government agencies. Other workers interviewed claimed to have willingly agreed to take the offered jobs, and remain as workers of their own accord. 

 

A worker in Hubei Province spoke of himself and 300 other Uyghurs living in a dormitory separate from staff comprised of the majority Han Chinese population. The Uyghurs were assigned minders from their home counties in Xinjiang, and were permitted to leave factory premises and should they wish to return to Xinjiang, a month's notice is required. Working up to 14 hours daily, a monthly salary up to 6,000 yuan ($837) is earned; the national average for a factory worker in China. 

 

The SAIC-Volkswagen plant is seen on the outskirts of Urumqi, capital of northwestern China's Xinjiang region, April 22, 2021. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

 

 The government identified 3.2 million transfers of Xinjiang's labour in 2023. The U.N. agency, International Labor Organization, reported in February that the labour transfer programs appear to use measures "severely restricting the free choice of employment". A wide range of multinational companies rely on suppliers to which Uyghur workers have been assigned. The programs are part of China's dominant role in the global economy.

 

The Uyghur workers process chicken for McDonald's and KFC restaurants in China while others make products for export, such as washing machines for LG Electronics and footwear for Crocs. German automakers, including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW attempted to address the sensitive forced labour issues. Over 100 companies were identified as receiving Uyghur workers or parts or goods produced by them, including LG, Tesla, Midea and KFC.

 

If suppliers are found to have been using forced labour they risk having their imported goods seized by U.S. customs officials. Some companies deny the  use of forced labour by their suppliers. "Based on recent audits, we do not have reason to believe that any of our suppliers are in violation of our policies", stated Colorado-based Crocs. 

 

Over a million Uyghurs were held by China in internment camps from 2017 to 2019, ostensibly to fight extremism. Once the camps closed, an estimated half million Uyghurs were sentenced to prison, according to rights groups. Xi Jinping, China's leader, informed officials during a visit to Xinjiang in 2023 that they should be vigilant against threats to stability and "encourage and guide Xinjiang people to go to the Chinese interior to find employment". 

 

"This is not about poverty alleviation. This is about dispersing Uyghurs as a group and breaking their roots", charged Rayhan Asat, a rights lawyer at the Atlantic Council, whose brother has been imprisoned since 2016 in Xinjiang. 

 

Residents line up inside the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, which was revealed by leaked documents to be a forced indoctrination camp at the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018. Voice of America

 

 

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Flouted by Iran

"I do think that the centrifuges, the actual ability of Iran to perform enrichment and to convert enriched uranium to metal has been severely damaged, if not very, very close to being completely destroyed."

"But the question is, what happened to the enriched uranium? According to Rafael Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, Iran informed the IEA that they were moving enriched uranium. They didn’t give details. They didn’t give a final destination."

"But that suggests that material has been moved from Fordow and possibly from Isfahan. Isfahan is the facility where they were keeping the most highly enriched uranium."

"But as you’ve seen in this [satellite] imagery, the trucks moving stuff from Fordow would probably include the material that was most recently enriched, which would be a smaller amount, as well as some of the most sensitive centrifuges and other equipment that they can get out of that facility and move into other secret facilities, that we might not be able to find."

William Alberque, Senior Adjunct Fellow, Pacific Forum – previously Director of NATO’s Arms Control, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation Centre

 

"There needs to be a cessation of hostilities for the necessary safety and security conditions to prevail so that Iran can let IAEA teams into the sites to assess the situation."

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi 

 

The mystery left after the U.S. bunker-buster strikes on the three nuclear sites, Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, is where the Iranian enriched uranium stocks have been taken to by the regime, prior to the strikes; the near-bomb-grade uranium whose enrichment and presence leading to the potential of the production of atomic bombs led Israel to attack Iran's nuclear sites last Friday, and the U.S. to join the aerial bombardment a day later.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency reflected on the situation where five days after the conflict began, its inspectors had lost track of the 409 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Should Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei give orders to continue with its weaponization program, the concern is that the spirited-away enriched uranium would provide the means by which nine bombs could be produced following enrichment upgraded to 90 percent.  

 

The uranium in question could be stored in 15 cylinders measuring 91.4 centimetres in height; each roughly the size of a large scuba-diving tank. At 25 kg in weight for each of the containers, they would be sufficiently lightweight to be  taken to a secret location, carried on foot or in a small vehicle. Assuming Israel and the U.S. effectively destroyed the enrichment infrastructure, the risk remains whether the uranium, close to near-weapons grade, could be indefinitely hidden.Prior to the attacks that Israel launched on Iran's nuclear sites, monitors with the IAEA maintained meticulous track records of Iran's declared inventory of uranium. Over one site daily was inspected to ensure the material was accounted for, not diverted for use in weapons. Israel's June 13 strikes led Iran to relocate the material to an undeclared facility, before the U.S. joined with more advanced bombing technology.

 

Although IAEA head Grossi has demanded that the Islamic Republic inform his inspectors of the new location, the expectation is that they will not be granted access. This week the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission approved the draft of a bill to require the government to suspend its cooperation with the IAEA; a halt to all engagement with the atomic watchdog "until the security of the country's nuclear facilities is guaranteed". 

 

Iran signed on to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, an international agreement to prevent the spread of atomic weapons. Signatories like Iran were given access to nuclear technologies conditioned on the premise they would not attempt to produce weapons. Much of that technology is dual use; applications in civilian or military lines of work. The treaty empowers the IAEA with ensuring nuclear material is appropriately maintained and used.

 

"The existing NPT framework has been rendered ineffective", stated Tehran's IAEA envoy Reza Najafi, since the accord integrity had been dealt an "irreparable blow" by the decision of Israel and the U.S. to bomb Iran's nuclear sites. Despite of course, that Iran had itself rendered the framework ineffective by refusing inspection of some of its nuclear facilities to IAEA inspectors,but above all, in enriching uranium to a level it was absolutely forbidden to achieve under the framework guidelines, reinforced by the 2015 deal.

 

Aerial view of an Iranian nuclear facility 

 

 

Tehran's Israel-Expiration Countdown Clock

"Firstly, you [Israel] will not see [the] next 25 years."

"God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by [the] next 25 years."

"Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 

 

"In accordance with the directives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and myself, the IDF is now attacking with full intensity. For every shot fired at the Israeli home front, the Iranian dictator will be punished."

"[The strikes will continue until] all war goals [are achieved.] We will continue to act to protect the home front and defeat the enemy."

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz  

 

Israel Defence Forces: A List of Targets Struck in Iran This Afternoon: June23/25

• 1. Command centers and assets belonging to the IRGC and internal security forces 
• 2. 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗷 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀- One of the IRGC’s central armed bases of power; responsible for enforcing Islamic law and reporting civilian violations to regime authorities 
• 3. 𝗔𝗹𝗯𝗼𝗿𝘇 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝘀 – Oversees security and military operations in the Tehran District 
• 4. “𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗿-𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵” 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 – Tasked with defending Tehran from security threats 
• 5. “𝗦𝗮𝘆𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗹-𝗦𝗵𝘂𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗮” 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝘀 – Responsible for homeland defense and the suppression of internal unrest 
• 6. 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀— Supervises personnel within the internal security wing and manages the monitoring and control of organizational information and media 

Iranian Protesters unveil a digital countdown showing 8411 days until Israel is destroyed AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi

 

There was what Israel spoke of as "unprecedented force" used to hit key targets within the Islamic Republic of Iran on Monday. Targets included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' international security headquarters along with its militia segment, the Basij. Evin Prison where "political prisoners and [regime] opponents end up", according to Israel's Minister of Defence had its gates blown up, an opportunity for those held prisoner to depart their incarceration. This is a prison notorious for its brutality; where imprisoned women held for dress code infractions are brutalized and raped and on occasion, murdered.

 

A 2008 photo of Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, where a number of foreigners and dual nationals have been detained over the years. (CC BY-SA 2.0 Ehsan Iran/Wikipedia)

 

And there was another target, that of the "Destruction of Israel" clock which stood in Palestine Square in Tehran. It was given pride of place there in 2017. Prominently displayed, the digital billboard counts down the days until the arrival of the highly anticipated "annihilation of Israel occurs". Demonstrators in Tehran, incited by the Grand Ayatollah -- following the 2015 agreement struck with the U.S., China, the U.K., France, Germany and Russia to limit and reduce its uranium enrichment -- who taunted Israel with the imminence of it destruction, erected the clock.

 

'Destruction of Israel' clock in Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran

 

It was unveiled on June 18, 2017 to celebrate Quds (Jerusalem) Day. This is an annual event in support of Palestinians and in referrence to opposition to Israel's existence on land ostensibly consecrated to Islam after the Islamic conquest, despite that this is the very land that is ancestrally Judean, pre-dating the very existence of Islam, by thousands of years. 'Quds day' was a brainchild of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini.

 

Red digital lettering presenting in Persian, English and Arabic displays the number of days "Left before the destruction of Israel", repeating Khamenei's original promise. The script appears over an Israeli flag intersected by a green, red and white-painted fist. Originally, at its initial installment, Israel was given 8,411 days until its annihilation, supposedly some 25 years from the date predicted by Khamenei, September 9, 2040.

 

Israel hit Iran's capital of Tehran with airstrikes on key targets early Monday morning. Among them, but not pictured here, was a digital clock counting down to the predicted destruction of Israel. Photo by - /UGC/AFP via Getty Images

 

 

Why It Was Time To Fold Iran's Nuclear Aspirations

"Iran continued supporting acts of terrorism through its proxies and partner groups -- such as Hezbollah, Ansar Allah [Houthis], Hamas and al-Ashtar Brigades -- in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon. Palestine, Syria and Yemen."

"[Iran is the world's] leading state sponsor of terrorism." 

"[The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] has supported terrorist] recruitment, financing and plotting across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas." 

U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Terrorism, 2023

 

"Over the past 40-plus years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has targeted dissidents, western opponents, Israelis and Jews in assassination plots, abduction plots and surveillance operation that facilitate both." 

"Iran has carried out such external operations around the world."

Combating Terrorism Center, West Point, 2022 study 

Iranians burn US and Israeli flags during an anti-Israel rally in Tehran on June 20. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

 

Last month the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report that found Iran had stockpiled sufficient enriched uranium to build nine nuclear bombs. The IAEA chastised the regime for its attempts to shield areas of its nuclear program from their inspectors. The regime is known to have been developing weapons able to carry out its plans to annihilate Israel, enriching uranium to 60 percent, a short step from producing the 90 percent enrichment for the creation of an atomic bomb.

 

Iran's fixation on destroying Israel is not a covert operation. In 2005, then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations and spoke of the need to see that Israel was "wiped off the map". He spoke too of the otherworldly aura he felt surrounding him, attributable to the unseen presence of the Hidden Mahdi, soon to be revealed, and with that the world would be destroyed, Armageddon. Only those faithful to Islam would be guaranteed a place in Heaven.

 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Photo: Justin Lane/EPA

That guarantee would be assured only for Shi'ite Muslims, all others would perish; non-Muslims and Muslims in the majority who practise the Sunni version of the faith. Until that blessed event occurred, the Islamic Republic focused on destroying the Jewish state, a long tradition of violent enmity targeting Jews that turned afterward on others deemed unfit to live. The fascist element of most such ideologies. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke of Israel as a "cancerous tumour" to be "removed and eradicated".

 

This man of God, albeit the God of Islam, advocated on his website for a "final solution" to address Israel's existence; reminiscent of the Nazi genocidal fixation that produced the Holocaust. Through its proxy terrorist militias in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen, as their benefactor, inciting them to act on behalf of Islam's injunction to jihad, the Islamic Republic tutored and armed and financed strategies of terrorist attacks against Israel over the years, culminating in the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023 of southern Israel resulting in thousands of terrorists and Gaza civilians raping, looting, torturing, murdering Israeli children, women, and the elderly.

 

Hamas is still  holding 52 dead and living Israelis as hostages, of the original 250 that were abducted out of Israel and held by terrorists and Palestinian civilians in inhumane conditions of starvation, torture and sensory deprivation. That was the latest mass atrocity forced on Israel. Previous events included attacks on international Jewish targets by Iran's proxies in past years in South America, that terrorized Jews, destroyed their institutions, and left diaspora Jews to mourn their dead.

 

Ukraine Airlines Flight 752 was shot down in 2020 by the IRGC -- ostensibly confusing the civilian airliner with an incoming U.S. missile -- after take-off from Tehran, killing all 175 passengers and crew on board. Iran's dread reputation as one of the world's most lethally ruthless regimes posing a threat to other countries has been well earned. Iran ranks 163 of 165 countries listed on the "Human Freedom Index" published by the Cato and Fraser Institutes. Iranian civilians are repressed and oppressed by their ruling mullahs. Women are forced to adhere to a strict dress code or face imprisonment and sometimes death.

 

When Iranians rebelled in 2022 after the arrest and murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman whose crime was failure to wear a hijab in the prescribed manner, the regime cracked down to the extent of killing an estimated 550 protesters, and arresting close to 20,000 demonstrators. Iran's sharia code of law saw it carrying out executions yearly at a rate far exceeding any other country. Some 975 people were hanged last year, among them political dissidents and those arrested for protesting Mahsa Amini's murder. 

 

An Israeli Air Force pilot is seen heading to an F-16 fighter jet before taking off for strikes in Iran, in a handout photo published June 22, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

It was past time for the Islamic Republic's aspiration to achieve nuclear status to be forcefully denied, when negotiations to persuade it to relinquish its nuclear plans fell on deaf ears. Israel began an aerial bombardment over a week ago to destroy Iran's nuclear plants. In the process with pinpoint accuracy the Israeli Airforce eradicated leading political, military, nuclear-scientific and IRGC figures involved in strategies meant to annihilate Israel.

 

The bombardment was relentless, hitting nuclear plants, military bases, IRGC training centers, and the regime's national network towers. Iranian airports were hit, planes destroyed, the country's naval bases hit as well as their ships. Israeli planes flew over Jordanian airspace, refuelled in midflight and continued on to Iran, hitting the capital Tehran, in its planned mission to destroy Iran's nuclear program, and its ballistic missile production sites and weapons depots.

 

Iran counter-attacked, sending drones and missiles into Israel.  Most of the projectiles were met in midair by Israeli defense technology. Those that landed generally did so in open spaces. It was, for the most part, debris from the drones and missiles hit en route before landing, that caused most of the damage, on falling to earth. But there were some direct missile hits, causing injury and death to Israelis, in fortunately small numbers. Warning sirens sent people to bomb shelters, interrupting the course of normal days for over a week. 

"[Israel is] very, very close [to achieving its goals in Iran]. We are setting them back, we are removing the threat."

"We won’t pursue our actions beyond what is needed to achieve [the goals], but we also won’t finish too soon. When the objectives are achieved, then the operation is complete and the fighting will stop."

"I have no doubt that this is a regime that wants to wipe us out, and that’s why we embarked on this operation to eliminate the two concrete threats to our existence: the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat. We are moving step by step towards achieving these goals. We are very, very close to completing them." 

"I told him [President Trump' of our need to act, and he understood it very well. And I knew that when push comes to shove, he would do the right thing. He would do the right thing for America. He would do the right thing for the free world. He would do the right thing for civilization."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu  

Members of the Israeli security forces check the apparent remains of an Iranian ballistic missile lying on the ground on the outskirts of Qatzrin, Golan Heights, Israel, on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Photo by MICHAEL GILADI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

 

The United States under its president, Donald Trump, made a decision to get involved, using the only heavy-duty bombs capable of penetrating the mountain fastness of Iran's major uranium-processing installation at Fordow. With all of Iran's major nuclear plants destroyed, its airforce now decimated, its naval fleet destroyed and its leadership in disarray, what could not be accomplished through diplomacy has now seen success through the medium of armed conflict. 

 

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, June 22, 2025, after the US military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

 

"Completely and Fully Obliterated"

 

"We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan."

"All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on t heir way home."

"This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR. THANK YOU!"     

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

President Trump with his Cabinet in the Situation Room of the White House as the U.S. conducts strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. June 21, 2025.  White House

 

And so the suspense ends, the commitment made, the attacks to deprive the Islamic Republic of Iran of its coveted aspiration has melted away. Even if Russia and North Korea have responded by vowing to provide Iran with the nuclear treasure it so avidly sought. Early Sunday the deed  was done, The American military directly linked with Israel's war on Iran's nuclear program, smashing its ballistic rocketry agenda, destroying its airports and planes, and bombing its naval vessels, targeting for assassination military, political, nuclear chiefs, most particularly those within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 

Iran, stressed the American president, now faces a choice that will impact its future and its very being: "peace or tragedy". Yet Iran's nuclear agency while confirming the attacks on the nation's atomic sites responded by reaffirming its work will proceed, that no outside agency can impose on the Islamic Republic any impediment to its choices and decisions, inspired by its theocratic devotion. 

 

Israel's long-thought-out strategy in response to the existential threats uttered time and again by Iran's Supreme Leader linked to its adamant search for nuclear weaponry to match its advancing missiles technology was launched precisely because diplomacy efforts have failed time and again, despite the urging of the UN's Antonio Gutteres' insistence on the effectiveness of diplomacy over military action. Israel's purpose was clear; to systematically eradicate air defences and offensive missile capabilities along with constructive damage to Iran's nuclear enrichment plans.  

 

Yet although the strategy and its brilliant aerial execution achieved all the stated objectives, there was just so much and not more that even Israel's well-trained and -armed military could produce when faced with the conundrum of how to penetrate deep into a mountainside to destroy a nuclear enrichment plant lodged there. "Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities, with the awesome and righteous might of the United States, will change history", lauded Israel's Prime Minister, delivering his message of deep appreciation to the American President. The U.S. "has done what no other country on Earth could do", he concluded.

(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on June 22, 2025 using handout satellite images released by Maxar Technologies shows Iran's Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the city of Qom on on June 19, 2025 (top), and Iran's Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), northeast of the city of Qom, after US strikes on the site June 22, 2025 (bottom). (Satellite image 2025 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

 

It was soon revealed that six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordo facility, while 30 Tomahawk missiles were fired by American submarines located 645 kilometres' distance to strike the sites of Natanz and Isfahan. Predictably, Iran pledged retaliation should the U.S. link to the Israeli assault. As far as Trump is concerned he has no interest in having American boots on the ground in Iran in line with his re-election pledge to avoid foreign conflicts. "The last thing you want to do", he said to reporters, while still mulling over how to proceed, two days before the U.S. bombing intervention.

 

On the other hand, after months of fruitless talks on de-escalation of Iran's nuclear enrichment program, the president vowed he would not permit Iran to work toward success in nuclear weaponry. In an effort to head off American involvement in Israel's attacks on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned any strike targeting the Islamic Republic would "result in irreparable damage for them", while an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned that "any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region".

 

Israel's offensive prepared the ground, presenting an opportunity to permanently destroy Iran's nuclear sites. What was needed to destroy Fordo, however, was something Israel did not have in its military armaments. An appeal was made to Mr. Trump for the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, whose weight and kinetic force could penetrate and explode deeply buried targets. And only the B-2 stealth bomber could deliver the bomb. The B-2 is part of the American arsenal, flown by American pilots only.

A B-2 bomber arrives at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, June 22, 2025. (AP Photo/David Smith)

 

Believed able to penetrate about 61 metres below the surface before exploding, the bombs can be dropped one after another, each successive blast drilling deeper and deeper. Iran has been producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Strikes by Israel at the Natanz nuclear site caused nuclear contamination at the site itself, not the surrounding area, according to the IAEA.  

"We know exactly where the so-called 'Supreme Leader' is hiding."

"He is an easy target, but is safe there -- We are not going to take him out [kill!], at least not for now."

President Trump