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CIA Director John Ratcliffe told skeptical US lawmakers that American military strikes destroyed Iran's lone metal conversion facility and in the process delivered a monumental setback to Tehran's nuclear programme that would take years to overcome, a US official said on Sunday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said Ratcliffe laid out the importance of the strikes on the metal conversion facility during a classified hearing for US lawmakers last week. Details about the private briefings surfaced as President Donald Trump and his administration keep pushing back on questions from Democratic lawmakers and others about how far Iran was set back by the strikes before last Tuesday's ceasefire with Israel took hold. It was obliterating like nobody's ever seen before, Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures". "And that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time. Ratcl
Allegations of any foreign country directing assassinations against Americans is a grave concern and must be investigated, Tulsi Gabbard, who has been picked by President Donald Trump to oversee spy agencies, told lawmakers on Thursday. Gabbard, 43, said this during her confirmation hearing for the position of Director of National Intelligence which oversees all the intelligence agencies of the US government, including the CIA and the FBI. She was responding to a question on a federal indictment which alleged that an Indian government employee directed an assassination attempt against a Sikh activist, who is a US citizen, in New York City in the spring of 2023, a plot foiled by US law enforcement. Separately, Canadian officials have accused the Indian government of assassinating a Canadian citizen and Sikh activist, Hardeep Singh Niijar, in Canada in June 2023. What are your views on these allegations that the Indian government is targeting Sikh activists in Canada and the United ..
The heads of the American and British foreign intelligence agencies said Saturday they are working ceaselessly for a cease-fire in Gaza, using a rare joint public statement to press for peace. CIA Director William Burns and MI6 Chief Richard Moore said their agencies had exploited our intelligence channels to push hard for restraint and de-escalation. In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, the two spymasters said a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war could end the suffering and appalling loss of life of Palestinian civilians and bring home the hostages after 11 months of hellish confinement. Burns has been heavily involved in efforts to broker an end to the fighting, traveling to Egypt in August for high-level talks aimed at bringing about a hostage deal and at least a temporary halt to the conflict. So far there has been no agreement, though United States officials insist a deal is close. U.S. President Joe Biden said recently that just a couple more issues remain unresolved.
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) on Tuesday maintained the cotton crop production forecast for the 2022-23 season at 311.18 lakh bales. In the last cotton season, the total cotton production was at 307.05 lakh bales, CAI said in a statement. The cotton season runs from October to September. The total cotton supply for October 2022 to July 2023 is estimated at 332.30 lakh bales, which consists of arrivals of 296.80 lakh bales, imports of 11.50 lakh bales and the opening stock estimated by the CAI at 24 lakh bales at the beginning of the season. Further, the CAI has estimated cotton consumption for the months of October 2022 to July 2023 at 265 lakh bales, while the export shipments up to July 31, are estimated at 14 lakh bales. Stocks at the end of July is estimated at 53.30 lakh bales including 28 lakh bales with textile mills and the remaining 25.30 lakh bales with the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), Maharashtra Federation and others (MNCs, traders, ginners among others)