Mexico probes contamination from SpaceX rocket explosion that landed in its territory
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her administration is investigating contamination from a SpaceX facility near the Mexican border in South Texas, and planning its next course of action, Associated Press reported.
The announcement follows the June 18 explosion of a Starship rocket while on a stand during a test, which sent a massive fireball into the night sky.
Pieces of metal, plastic and rocket pieces were reportedly found in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which borders the SpaceX’s Starbase following the explosion.
On Wednesday, Sheinbaum responded to a reporter’s question during her daily news briefing, saying “there’s a general review underway, (to find out) what international laws they are violating.” She added that her administration would then see what steps to take with the company, because “there is contamination.”
Trump attacks the media for reporting on intelligence assessment of Iran strikes
President Donald Trump is repeatedly condemning CNN and The New York Times for reports that call into question the damage caused by last weekend’s U.S. strikes of Iran — and downplaying his own intelligence analysts in the process, Associated Press reported.
Trump on Wednesday called on CNN to throw out “like a dog” a reporter who has worked on the story and suggested Times reporters were “bad and sick people” who were attempting to demean American pilots involved in the strikes.
Both news outlets defended their reporting.
The president is angry about stories that a preliminary assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had said Saturday’s strike of three nuclear sites had set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months. The assessment “suggests that President Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were ‘obliterated’ was overstated,” The Times said in a six-bylined story on Tuesday night, according to Associated Press.
Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week as ceasefire holds
Israel and Iran seemed to honor the fragile ceasefire between them for a second day Wednesday and U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that American and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace, Associated Press reported.
Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he was not particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.
“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”
NATO commits to major defence spending hike sought by Trump
NATO allies have agreed to massively boost military spending while affirming their “ironclad commitment” to collective defence, Aljazeera reported.
Leaders from the 32-member bloc pledged to allocate up to 5 percent of their national GDP to defence and related sectors by 2035, describing the move as a “quantum leap” in collective security.
The new pledge was made in a summit communique agreed on Wednesday in The Hague. It stated that members would “invest 5 percent of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence- and security-related spending”.
