The United States is bracing for Iran’s response after President Donald Trump launched punishing strikes on Iranian nuclear energy sites Saturday. It was the first time the U.S. has directly bombed the Islamic Republic.
The U.S. struck Iranian nuclear facilities, including the key Fordo site, with 14 GBU-57s, 30,000-pound “bunker buster bombs,” according to the U.S. military.
On Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that while the U.S. did not want war, it will “act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened.”
The next few days are of particular concern, according to two defense officials and a senior White House official. It’s unclear whether any retaliation would target overseas or domestic locations, or both, the officials said.
In the days before Trump gave the final order for the attack on the nuclear sites, Iran sent a private message to the president that it would respond to such a move by unleashing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil carried out by sleeper cells operating inside the country, according to two U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the threat.
While Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned of “everlasting consequences,” experts say the country has limited options.
Constraints
Iran’s capacity to strike is narrower than it once was.
H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate at the London-based Royal United Services Institute, told NBC News that Iran still has the power to attack, “but only because Israelis haven’t taken out all of their missile launchers.” Iran still has around 40% of its launchers, Hellyer said.
Iran’s proxy network has also been battered by years of attrition with Israel and the U.S. Its most important ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, has indicated it would not join the fight against Israel.
Iran may also lack staunch support from its neighbors — some Gulf nations stopped short of condemning the U.S. attacks on Iran, calling instead for de-escalation.
Blocking oil flows
In what could prove to be a symbolic move, Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to block the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil passes. The final decision will be made by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The strait is an international shipping choke point and blocking it could send oil prices soaring. It would also hurt Iran’s own struggling economy and alienate neutral powers.
Cyber threats
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ cyber capabilities are formidable, and the U.S. considers Iran one of its four major adversaries in cyberspace along with China, North Korea and Russia.
While Iran lacks Russia’s robust cybercrime syndicates or China’s vast teams of sophisticated digital spies, the U.S. has in recent years accused Iranians of working for the IRGC.
If Iran conducts retaliatory cyberattacks, they would come in the wake of several rounds of cuts to the Trump administration’s top civilian cyber defense agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA’s two former directors have both warned that the administration’s cuts make U.S. infrastructure more vulnerable to hackers.
'Meet the Press'
Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. is not at war with Iran, but with Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.
During an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” moderator Kristen Welker asked the vice president whether the U.S. was now at war with Iran.
“We’re not at war with Iran,” Vance said. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”
Vance also declined to confirm with 100% confidence that the country’s nuclear sites had been completely destroyed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., meanwhile, brushed off concerns that Trump had acted without authorization from Congress.
“Congress can declare war or cut off funding. We can’t be the commander in chief. You can’t have 535 commander in chiefs,” Graham said, referring to the number of representatives and senators.
But Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said that the president can act militarily “when there’s a clear and imminent threat to U.S. citizens, to the United States, to the homeland.”
“That wasn’t the case here,” Kelly said.
Politics in brief
- Flip-flop: Across the country, 20-point margins in counties Republicans were winning at the turn of the century have turned into 50-point margins or more in recent years. Political competitiveness at the local level is being replaced by landslide loyalty to a single party.
- Fighting on: After more than three months in ICE detention, Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil returned to the New York area, where his harrowing ordeal first began — and vowed to keep speaking out against the war in Gaza.
- Well, that’s “awkward”: Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is considering a run for president in 2028, and admits the potential of taking on his friend and ally Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is “going to be awkward.”
War on porn brings together strange bedfellows
Feminists, religious crusaders and “alpha male” influencers are unlikely allies in the decades-old battle over adult content — and they’re on a winning streak.
Anti-porn campaigners have pushed states into implementing online age verification laws, while some politicians are pursuing aggressive bans on explicit content.
Culturally, the view that porn is harmful not only to women but increasingly also to men and to the sexual development of young people has made significant inroads.
Once viewed as a fringe moral crusade, the war against porn has ballooned into a multipronged, mainstream force over the past decade. Porn industry leaders have acknowledged their ongoing battle with deepfakes, underage content and revenge porn, including Pornhub, which removed millions of unverified videos from its website in 2020 following allegations that the site showed problematic content.
Gail Dines, a key figure in the anti-porn movement for over 30 years, said the goal isn’t necessarily to ban porn, but argued the industry has “sowed the seeds of its own destruction.”
NBA crowns its champion in Game 7
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the 2024-25 NBA champions after they defeated the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 of the Finals on Sunday. It's the Thunder's first title since the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008.
The Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the regular season MVP and now the Finals MVP, led scorers in Game 7 with 29 points. He added 12 assists and five rebounds. The Pacers played the majority of the game without star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who left in the first quarter with what his father said was an Achilles injury.
Sunday's game remained close through the first half even after Haliburton's exit, but the Thunder turned the game around in the third quarter. See more highlights from the title game.
Notable quote
I think their parents did not raise them well enough.
Esther Yang, New York City yoga instructor
A cast of scandal-plagued candidates is testing the limits of what New York City voters will forgive, with Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams and Anthony Weiner bringing no shortage of baggage to their political campaigns this year.
In case you missed it
- A shooter at a Michigan church injured one person Sunday before being shot and killed by a security guard, according to local authorities.
- A hot-air balloon caught fire and tumbled from the sky on Saturday in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight people.
- At least three people are dead in rural North Dakota after tornadoes left damage across eastern areas of the state, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.
- The Phoenix Suns are reportedly trading forward Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th pick in this week’s NBA draft and a slew of future picks.
- Fred Smith, the FedEx Corp. founder who revolutionized the express delivery industry, has died, the company said. He was 80.
- In Indianapolis, which is home to around 30,000 Burmese people, a travel ban and tariffs on goods from Myanmar have hit local businesses hard.
- Dozens of people suffered minor injuries when a yacht carrying 352 passengers crashed into a pier on the Hudson River in New York City, authorities said.
- In the wake of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s move to shake up a key federal vaccine advisory committee, outside medical organizations and independent experts are considering forming their own unbiased group.
