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Trump administration takes on new battle shutting down initial Iran strike assessments

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A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency report is casting doubt on President Donald Trump’s claim that recent U.S. airstrikes «completely and totally obliterated» three Iranian nuclear facilities, instead concluding the mission only set back Iran’s program by several months.

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The report, published by CNN and The New York Times, comes just days after Trump approved the strikes amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran. In a national address immediately following the operation, Trump declared the sites «completely and totally obliterated.» 

While members of the Trump administration have waged a new war to discredit the initial report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, multiple experts told Fox News Digital that there is too little information available right now to accurately determine how much damage the strikes did. 

Piecing together a thorough intelligence assessment is complex and time-consuming, they said. 

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FBI INVESTIGATING IRAN STRIKE LEAKER, LEAVITT SAYS: ‘THEY SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE’

Trump said Saturday that the U.S. completed a «very successful» strike against Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, saying that Iran’s nuclear enrichment installations have been «obliterated.»  (Fox News)

Dan Shapiro, who previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he didn’t put a lot of stock in both overly pessimistic or overly optimistic assessments that emerged quickly, and said that the initial assessment from DIA was likely only based on satellite imagery. 

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«That’s one piece of the puzzle of how you would really make this assessment,» Shapiro, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Fox News Digital. «You’d really want to have to test all the other streams of intelligence, from signals intelligence, human intelligence, other forms of monitoring the site, potentially visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, potentially visits by other people. So that’s going to take days to weeks to get a real assessment.» 

«But I think it’s likely that if the munitions performed as expected, that significant damage was done, and would set back the program significantly,» Shapiro said. 

Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that initial battle damage assessments suggested «all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,» but he acknowledged that a final assessment would «take some time.» 

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Still, media reports based on the DIA report painted a different picture, and CNN’s reporting on the initial report said that Iran’s stash of enriched uranium was not destroyed in the strikes, citing seven people who had been briefed on the report. The findings were based on a battle damage assessment from U.S. Central Command, according to CNN. 

Other members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, have subsequently pushed back on the DIA report’s conclusions, claiming that the report was labeled «low confidence.» 

TRUMP SLAMS RUSSIA’S CASUAL THREAT TO ARM IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS: ‘THAT’S WHY PUTIN’S THE BOSS’

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wearing a blue suit and gesturing with his hand

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

The term is commonly used when labeling initial assessments, and means that conclusions are based on limited data, according to experts. 

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who previously served as the director for transnational threats at the National Security Council for former President Bill Clinton, said the low confidence description is commonly used in early assessments. 

«Low confidence means the analyst is not sure of the accuracy of their assessment,» said Montgomery, now a senior fellow at the Washington think tank the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. «This is frequent when with a Quick Look 24-hour assessment like this one.»

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Montgomery’s colleague, Craig Singleton, also a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that the low confidence label is used in cases with thin evidence and serves as a warning to policy-makers to seek additional information. 

«Most importantly, low confidence assessments are usually issued when key facts have yet to be verified, which certainly applies in this case,» Singleton said.

Rob Greenway, former deputy assistant to the president on Trump’s National Security Council, told Fox News Digital that it will take one or two months to get a more thorough assessment with higher confidence. 

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IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER REITERATES ‘SERIOUS DAMAGE’ TO NUCLEAR FACILITIES, DESPITE AYATOLLAH’S COMMENTS 

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U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting alongside Vice President J.D. Vance in the Situation Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2025.  (The White House/Handout via Reuters)

Greenway also said that the strikes were designed to create damage underground, which will complicate the assessment of damage, because it is not immediately available and will require multiple sources of intelligence, such as signals or human intelligence, to draw conclusions. 

Israel had also previously conducted strikes targeting the sites, adding to the web of analysis that must be evaluated, Greenway said. 

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«Each of these are one piece of a much larger puzzle, and you’re trying to gauge the ultimate effect of the entirety of the puzzle, not just one particular strike,» said Greenway, now the director of the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation. «All of that means it’s going to take time in order to do it.» 

Even so, Greenway said that the amount of ordnance dropped on the sites – including more than 14 30,000-lb. bombs – means that the targeted facilities have been so heavily compromised they are no longer serviceable. 

«We were putting twice the amount of ordnance required to achieve the desired effect, just to make sure that we didn’t have to go back,» Greenway said. 

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EX-CLINTON OFFICIAL APPLAUDS TRUMP’S ‘COURAGEOUS’ IRAN CALL, DOUBTS HARRIS WOULD’VE HAD THE NERVE

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President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) sit in the Situation Room as they monitor the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites, at the White House on June 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Daniel Torok/The White House via Getty Images)

«There’s virtually no mathematical probability in which either facility can be used again by Iran for the intended purpose, if at all, which again means that everything now is within Israel’s capability to strike if that’s required,» Greenway said. 

And Michael Allen, a former National Security Council senior director in the George W. Bush administration, said that even though a final judgment from the intelligence community won’t be ready soon, the intelligence portrait will become «richer» in the coming days. 

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«Stuff is pouring in, and we’re out there collecting it, and they’re trying to hustle it to the White House as soon as possible,» Allen, now the managing director of advisory firm Beacon Global Strategies, told Fox News Digital. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that very few people had access to this report, and those who leaked it to the media will be held accountable as the FBI investigates who shared the document with the press. 

«That person was irresponsible with it,» Leavitt told reporters Thursday. «And we need to get to the bottom of it. And we need to strengthen that process to protect our national security and protect the American public.»

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US deploys Ford carrier strike group to combat narco-terror in Western Hemisphere

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The Trump administration has ordered the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Western Hemisphere as the U.S. continues to target suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean.  

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«In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),» chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Friday.  

«The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,» he added. «These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs.»

The Trump administration has ordered a number of strikes in the Caribbean aimed at dismatling and disrupting drug cartels in the region. 

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Most recently, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that a strike on a vessel allegedly operated by members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), killed six alleged narco-terrorists.

This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.  



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La neurociencia revela cómo se forman y modifican los hábitos

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La repetición y la estabilidad del entorno son claves para consolidar hábitos, según la investigación. (Imagen Ilustrativa Infobae)

La neurociencia ha demostrado que los hábitos, esos comportamientos automáticos que moldean la rutina diaria y repercuten en la salud mental, surgen de la interacción entre dos sistemas cerebrales: uno responsable de responder a estímulos y otro orientado por metas y creencias.

Esta perspectiva, presentada mediante un estudio publicado en enero de 2025 por investigadores del Trinity College Dublin, está transformando la comprensión sobre la formación y modificación de los hábitos, con efectos directos en la vida cotidiana y en el tratamiento de trastornos compulsivos.

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Eike Buabang y su equipo destacan el denominado marco de doble sistema. Este concepto, respaldado por la neurociencia cognitiva, sostiene que los hábitos resultan del equilibrio entre un sistema de control dirigido por objetivos —basado en la evaluación consciente de acciones y resultados— y un sistema estímulo-respuesta, que automatiza conductas frente a señales familiares.

Cuando el sistema estímulo-respuesta domina, las personas tienden a repetir acciones sin analizar su relación con metas actuales, lo que puede derivar en errores, impulsividad o conductas compulsivas. Como señalan Buabang y sus colegas: “Los hábitos pueden entenderse como un balance entre un sistema impulsado por estímulos, basado en asociaciones estímulo-respuesta, y un sistema dirigido por objetivos, basado en expectativas acción-resultado y metas valoradas”.

Romper hábitos arraigados requiere debilitar
Romper hábitos arraigados requiere debilitar asociaciones estímulo-respuesta y crear alternativas.(Imagen Ilustrativa Infobae)

La formación de hábitos responde a varios mecanismos clave. Destaca la repetición, ya que cada vez que una conducta se repite en un contexto similar, las conexiones neuronales entre estímulo y respuesta se refuerzan, facilitando su automatización. No obstante, el estudio muestra que la evidencia es dispar sobre cuántas repeticiones se requieren: algunos trabajos sitúan el rango entre 18 y 254 días, según el tipo de hábito y características de la persona.

El refuerzo —la obtención de consecuencias positivas tras la acción— fortalece los hábitos, gracias en parte a la dopamina en regiones cerebrales como el putamen posterior. Además, cuando se desactivan los procesos dirigidos por objetivos, por presión de tiempo, estrés o distracción, el sistema estímulo-respuesta asume el control. La estabilidad del contexto favorece la consolidación de los hábitos, ya que la repetición en entornos previsibles disminuye la necesidad de supervisión consciente y permite que las acciones se encadenen de modo automático.

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Existen diferencias individuales y neurobiológicas que influyen en la facilidad para formar o interrumpir hábitos. La estructura y actividad de circuitos como el putamen y la corteza prefrontal dorsolateral varían entre personas, lo que explica por qué algunos adquieren hábitos con rapidez mientras que otros precisan más tiempo o repeticiones. Además, la intensidad de las señales contextuales, la frecuencia de repetición y la motivación —tanto intrínseca como extrínseca— modulan este proceso. Según la investigación: “La duración necesaria para formar un hábito varía considerablemente entre individuos”, lo que resalta la importancia de personalizar las estrategias de intervención.

Romper hábitos arraigados requiere debilitar las asociaciones estímulo-respuesta, evitar los estímulos desencadenantes, potenciar la inhibición dirigida por objetivos y, en muchos casos, crear hábitos alternativos que compitan con los anteriores. La extinción de un hábito no elimina las conexiones previas, sino que genera una nueva asociación entre el contexto y la ausencia de respuesta, lo que explica la propensión a recaer frente a los estímulos originales.

Estrategias como la evitación de contextos problemáticos, el entrenamiento en inhibición y la formación de intenciones de implementación (“si ocurre X, haré Y”) presentan eficacia tanto en entornos experimentales como en la vida cotidiana. Estas técnicas operan en terapias conductuales y farmacológicas, y pueden potenciarse mediante intervenciones como la estimulación cerebral no invasiva, que refuerza el control ejecutivo.

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El estudio del Trinity College
El estudio del Trinity College Dublin destaca el papel de dos sistemas cerebrales en la creación de rutinas. (The Hospital for Sick Children SickKids)

Las aplicaciones clínicas de estos avances resultan especialmente relevantes en trastornos compulsivos, como el trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo (TOC), las adicciones y los trastornos alimentarios. En estos casos, se identifica un déficit en el control dirigido por objetivos, lo que favorece la aparición de hábitos patológicos. Como advierte la investigación: “El trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo, el trastorno por consumo de sustancias y los trastornos alimentarios están vinculados a déficits en el control dirigido por objetivos, posiblemente explicados por una dimensión transdiagnóstica de compulsividad”.

Las terapias más eficaces combinan la exposición a los estímulos desencadenantes, la prevención de la respuesta habitual y el refuerzo de conductas alternativas, lo que permite abordar tanto mecanismos automáticos como procesos conscientes.

A pesar de estos avances, la investigación actual enfrenta desafíos metodológicos y conceptuales. Persisten dificultades para replicar hallazgos clave en humanos y continúa el debate sobre la suficiencia del modelo de doble sistema. Buabang y sus colegas proponen modelos más complejos, integrando la interacción dinámica entre hábitos de pensamiento, creencias automáticas y conductas. La transferencia de hábitos entre contextos y la resistencia al cambio figuran como áreas de estudio aún en desarrollo.

Hacia el futuro, la investigación subraya la importancia de profundizar en los mecanismos subyacentes a la formación y alteración de hábitos, así como adaptar las intervenciones a las distintas características individuales y contextuales. Solo mediante una comprensión más precisa de estos procesos será posible diseñar estrategias realmente eficaces para promover cambios conductuales duraderos y mejorar el abordaje de trastornos relacionados con la compulsividad.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James enters plea in federal mortgage fraud case

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New York Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, Friday, where she pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

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The charges against James stem from her 2020 purchase of a home in Norfolk, Virginia. Prosecutors allege that James misled a bank about the nature of the residence in order to obtain more favorable loan conditions.

The indictment states that James misrepresented the financial institution in claiming it would be her secondary residence, and instead rented it out to a family. 

According to the indictment, the lower interest rate would allow James to save nearly $19,000 over the course of the 30-year loan.

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LETITIA JAMES TO BE ARRAIGNED IN VIRGINIA ON FEDERAL BANK FRAUD CHARGES TIED TO 2020 HOME PURCHASE

NY AG Letitia James and President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

James entered the not guilty plea herself to U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker. 

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She is being represented in the case by defense attorney Abbe Lowell, and by Andrew Bosse, a former assistant U.S. attorney based in Norfolk who formerly headed up the office’s criminal division. 

James’ arraignment is the latest in a string of prosecutions brought against the president’s perceived political foes, despite objections from career prosecutors — some of whom have since been fired or resigned.

James, a Democrat, has long-drawn Trump’s ire after she campaigned for attorney general in 2016 largely on vows to investigate Trump’s actions and businesses.

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She also successfully secured a $450 million civil fraud case against him last year, though an appeals court later tossed the financial penalty portion of the case. 

«This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system,» James said in a statement after she was indicted. 

DOJ SEEKS REMOVAL OF COMEY’S DEFENSE LAWYER, CITING CONFLICT OF INTEREST

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Trump denies B1 bombers flew toward Venezuela amid cartel threats. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

«These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,» she added.

Her indictment, like the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, was presented to a grand jury by former White House aide Lindsey Halligan, whom President Donald Trump installed as the acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia last month. 

Trump, in September, said he would install Halligan as the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing interim attorney Erik Siebert, who resigned under pressure to indict both Comey and James.

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«No one is above the law. The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust,» Halligan said in a statement. «The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.»

After the arraignment, it is likely that she will file a motion to dismiss her case for vindictive and selective prosecution, following similar steps taken by Comey’s legal team in Alexandria earlier this week. 

She will also file a motion to dismiss her case based on what her lawyers will argue was the unlawful appointment of Halligan in securing her indictment. 

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Lowell, her attorney, has described the case against her as «improper political retribution,» and vowed they would «fight these charges in every process allowed in the law.»

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment on the case, or whether Halligan or Keller would be joined by any other federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia.  

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Speaking to reporters outside the court on Friday, James said the Justice Department is being used as a tool of «revenge,» and a «vehicle of retribution.»

«But my faith is strong,» she told the group that had massed outside the courthouse in Norfolk, Virginia, hours earlier. «I have a belief in the justice system.»

«Never cow down or break or bend. So there is no fear today,» she said. «I will not be deterred.»

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Judge Walker set a trial date for Jan. 26, 2026, and ordered parties to appear back in court for motions hearings in early December.

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