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Damage doubts, Mamdani victory and judicial scrutiny

 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

Iran nukes program set back months, early intel suggests

What happened
The U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday damaged but did not destroy core components of Tehran's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, not years, according to an initial assessment from the Pentagon's intelligence arm, shared with CNN and other news organizations yesterday. The assessment, if accurate, contradicted President Donald Trump's repeated claim that the "bunker buster" strikes he ordered had "completely and fully obliterated" the Iranian facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

Who said what
The Defense Intelligence Agency judged that "at least some of Iran's highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved" before the U.S. strikes "and survived," The Associated Press said, and that Tehran's "centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact." The DIA assessment "is that the U.S. set them back maybe a few months, tops," a person familiar with the report told CNN.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the DIA's "alleged 'assessment' is flat-out wrong" and was leaked to "demean" Trump. "Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration." 

Trump "started using the word 'obliterated' before he received his first battle damage report" and has "closely monitored which members of his administration have used the same language," The New York Times said. Trump "had been eager to celebrate his success" at a NATO summit that started last night in the Netherlands, but his "upbeat demeanor" from the "fragile ceasefire" he cajoled and cursed Israel and Iran into accepting "crumbled" after the "damaging" intelligence findings became public.

What next?
The damage assessment by the DIA and other spy agencies "is ongoing, and could change as more intelligence becomes available," CNN said. The White House canceled classified top-level House and Senate briefings on the Iran strike yesterday and rescheduled them for later this week, fueling speculation about the effectiveness of the attack. "They don't delay briefings that have good news," Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) told The Washington Post. 

 
 
Today's POLITICS story

Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary

What happened
Zohran Mamdani, a progressive New York state lawmaker, declared victory last night in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary after his main rival, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded the race. Mamdani got 43.5% of the first-choice votes to Cuomo's 36.4%, and his cross-endorsement with third-place finisher Brad Lander effectively guaranteed his win under the primary's ranked-choice voting system.

Who said what
"My friends, we have done it," Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, told supporters at a victory party in Queens. Cuomo, 67, had told his watch party 90 minutes earlier that he called Mamdani to concede. "Tonight is his night. He deserved it. He won." Democratic consultant Trip Yang told The New York Times that Mamdani's victory was "the biggest upset in modern New York City history." Politico called it a "humiliating defeat" for Cuomo.

The front-runner in all pre-election polls, Cuomo was attempting a political comeback after resigning as governor in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations. But Mamdani "gained momentum by running a sharp campaign laser-focused on the city's high cost of living" and amassing an "army of young canvassers" who swarmed the city on his behalf, said The Associated Press.

What next?
The final ranked-choice results will be released July 1. "Modern history dictates that Democratic nominees typically win in New York City races," Politico said, "but Mamdani faces a complicated, crowded and challenging general election" against Republican Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams (D), who is running as an independent. Cuomo said last night he was still deciding if he would also run as an independent in November's general election.

 
 
Today's LEGAL Story

Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says

What happened
Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official and President Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney, actively encouraged government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders, recently dismissed DOJ immigration litigator Erez Reuveni alleged yesterday in a whistleblower complaint to lawmakers. Trump has nominated Bove for a lifetime seat on the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Who said what
According to Reuveni's complaint, Bove told federal lawyers in a March 14 meeting that if the courts threw up roadblocks to Trump's plan to rapidly deport migrants using the Alien Enemies Act, the DOJ "would need to consider telling the courts 'f---- you'" and "ignore any such order." That episode was followed by a "series of attempts by DOJ officials to thwart court orders in at least three immigration-related cases," said Politico.

Bove's boss, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, called Reuveni's allegations "falsehoods purportedly made by a disgruntled former employee." But Reuveni's filing "suggests a copious trail of emails, texts and phone records that would support" his claims, The New York Times said.

What next?
As "Trump's enforcer" at the DOJ, Bove "has repeatedly rankled and alarmed many career prosecutors," Politico said, and Reuveni's account "seems certain to roil" his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing today. Still, said CNN, it "would be difficult at this time" to coordinate "enough political support among Republicans to block his nomination."

 
 

It's not all bad

Armando López Pocol has spent 25 years reforesting Guatemala’s highlands, planting up to 25,000 trees a year through the Chico Mendes Project. Despite fires, including some suspected cases of arson, and no government funding, he and his volunteers continue planting, boosting the environment and local economy through ecotourism and education. "We all just want a green planet so all future children can have a clean environment, clean water, pure oxygen and food," Pocol said to The Guardian.

 
 
Under the radar

Could humans be capable of growing new limbs? Scientists are trying to figure that out with the help of salamanders. Research shows that the amphibians' regeneration abilities come from mechanisms humans could potentially access. 

One of the field's "outstanding questions" was "how a salamander knows what to grow," James Monaghan, a Northeastern University biologist, said to The Washington Post. A study led by Monaghan and published in the journal Nature Communications examined the aquatic salamander, or axolotl. They are "able to regrow not only lost limbs but also tissue in the heart, lungs and even the brain," said the Post. The key to these abilities lies in retinoic acid, which is "responsible for signaling what body parts an axolotl's injured cells should regenerate," said CNN.

But that was only half of the story. "We have known that retinoic acid is a crucial molecule," Monaghan told Wired. But the "puzzle was how the cells in the regenerating limb-stump controlled their levels so precisely." As it turns out, the answer was quantity. "Higher concentrations of retinoic acid tell an axolotl's body to keep growing leg length, while lower concentrations signal it's time to sprout a foot," said Popular Science. 

Retinoic acid is "important in the development of human embryos, too," said CNN. But while people can grow limbs in utero, they cannot grow them after birth. So the solution to this medical challenge may require "triggering the reprogramming of a cell into the proper state where it thinks it's an embryo," said Monaghan.

 
 
On this day

June 25, 1929

President Herbert Hoover authorized the construction of a massive dam on the Colorado River. The dam took five years to complete, costing $49 million — or over $900 million in today's dollars. The structure, which was officially renamed the Hoover Dam in 1947, straddles Arizona and Nevada and remains a popular tourist attraction.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"Fragile ceasefire takes hold after rocky start," the Austin American-Statesman says on Wednesday's front page. "Israel-Iran truce in place as Trump scolds them both," says The New York Times. "Immigrants in jeopardy not seeking police help," USA Today says. "Woman's 911 abuse call led ICE to her," the Houston Chronicle says. "Most detained in L.A.-area raids had no criminal records," and "street vendors risk arrest, family breakup to work," the Los Angeles Times says. "Fear of raids hits restaurants hard," says the San Francisco Chronicle. "Florida, eager to assist ICE, is building 'Alligator Alcatraz,'" says The Washington Post. "Conditions deteriorate in S. Georgia immigration jail," says The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Double the diplomas

John F. Kennedy High School in Nassau County, New York, graduated nearly 500 students on Sunday, including 30 sets of fraternal twins. Many have been friends since kindergarten, and "when we are together, the room is electric," graduate Sydney Monka told The Associated Press. Some of the twins were born via IVF and others say twins run in their families, but graduate Emily Brake has her own theory for the mass of multiples: "I guess there's just something in the water."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images