Satellite images have capturedIran’s Arak heavy water research reactorwith a huge, gaping hole blasted through it after Israel dropped a bomb on the nuclear site — which was built as a key part of the country’s atomic bomb ambitions.
The before and after photos shed light on the damage inflicted on the facility after the Israeli military said it pummeled the nuclear site near Iran’s central city of Arak early Thursday in a targeted attack.
In the aftermath of the blast, one image showed a large crater in the dome of the partially built heavy water research reactor.
Israel also later released black-and-white footage of the strike on the Arak reactor, which showed the bomb exploding on the dome before a massive plume of fire and smoke erupted into the sky.
Fighter jets targeted the Arak facility and its reactor core seal to stop it from being used to produce plutonium, Israel’s military said.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” the Israelis said.
Heavy water reactors produce plutonium, which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atomic bomb.
Israel also later released black-and-white footage of the strike on the Arak reactor, which showed the bomb exploding on the dome before a massive plume of fire and smoke erupted into the sky.IDF
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog noted that since it was not in operation and contained no nuclear material at the time, there was no danger to the public of any “radiological effects.”
The facility had also been evacuated before the attack, Iranian state television reported.
In the lead-up, the Israel Defense Forces had shared an evacuation warning across social media that included a satellite image of the nuclear plant — complete with a red circle blast zone.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog noted that since it was not in operation and contained no nuclear material at the time, there was no danger to the public of any “radiological effects.”IDF
“Dear citizens, for your safety and well-being, we urgently request that you immediately evacuate the designated area in Tehran’s Area 18. Your presence in this area puts your life at risk,” the IDF wrote on X.
Russia and Iran are targeting the Make America Great Again movement and trying to “destabilize the right from within,” according to a new report.
Both rogue states are using tens of thousands of social media bots to amplify untrue voices and opinions “masquerading as MAGA loyalists,” to cause chaos and confusion and question US leadership, The Post has learned.
The bots are automated software applications that mimic human activity on social media.
They are used to amplify real-life influencers who post untrue “false flag” narratives designed to discredit President Donald Trump and his conservative stalwarts, according to a bombshell new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, a politically neutral nonprofit who study extremism on the web.
The same foreign playbook that undid the Democratic party is trying to destroy MAGA from within, according to a new NCRI report.AP
“If you talk to Republicans right now, more than 80 percent of them support the war against Iran. But if you go on Twitter you get the sense that there is a civil war raging.
“This is exactly the purpose of the psychological operation — to destabilize people’s perceptions of institutions that are supposed to protect us,” said an NCRI analyst.
The bots make it look like extreme posters have tons more support than they actually have, which helps to persuade other real life viewers that what they are posting is legitimate.
The bots use innocuous, average names and have profiles which make them appear as average Americans.
NCRI says after domestic attacks, including the Uvalde school shooting, Matthew Crooks assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC in May it has noticed an alarming trend of a “false flag reflex”.
“Within minutes of initial reports [the events are recast] as evidence of hidden conspiratorial plots, obscuring the true motives and perpetrators.
“In the days following these crises, Kremlin-affiliated propagandists and Iranian state-linked media are able to rapidly inject narratives that are taken up by MAGA-impostor influencers, who then inject them into MAGA-branded spaces,” the report notes.
Noctis Draven, who is a regular consultant for Kremlin media, spread the “false flag” story about the murder of two Israeli staffers in an attempt to push a conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the deaths.Network Contagion Research Institute
Evidence from a Network Contagion Research Institute’s report showing bots spreading misinformation calling real events “false flags”Network Contagion Research Institute
The group points to Draven Noctis, a real person and US veteran who frequently contributes to Russian state media, and has a potential reach of 2.4 million with more than 180,000 followers on X.
“It’s so expensive in the US and Canada that even refugees can’t understand how we make it,” he says in a 2024 TikTok post while describing the US as a “slave system” designed to impoverish its own citizens.
“We are free range humans in an open-air prison of taxes and bulls–t distractions and we think it’s completely normal,” he continues.
In an earlier post on EurAsia Daily, a Kremlin propaganda outlet, he is shown in military uniform urging Ukrainian soldiers to defect to Russia. The message is written in Cyrillic alphabet, propaganda which is then republished by bots.
Jackson Hinkle, a social media influencer, spreads anti-Western conspiracies to his more than three million X followers.Getty Images
The “false flag” narrative surrounding the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in May – absurdly attempting to claim the man charged with the shooting was, in fact, working on behalf of Israel – was another case in point, the nonprofit says.
“Foreign-linked seeders, such as Noctis, inject crisis narratives within minutes of breaking news. Their content is then mass-republished by clusters of inauthentic accounts, according to the NCRI report. “Domestic personalities with large but unstable followings – [such as noted trolls like] Jackson Hinkle supply a veneer of grassroots legitimacy, completing an ‘asset-adjacency’ model in which fringe US influencers ride the same engagement farms that propel Kremlin messaging,” the NCRI report says.
Between May 1 and June 10, NCRI recorded 675,000 posts on X referencing “false flag” and drawing nearly four million interactions, according to the report, adding activity spiked in two sharp bursts: on May 24 after the embassy shooting and on June 3 after the firebombing of a Jewish demonstration in Boulder.
X user Red Pill Media claims to be based in the US, but was found to originate in Karachi, Pakistan.Eyal Yakoby/ Red Pill Media/ X
“False-flag allegations occupy a privileged corner of Russian hybrid-warfare doctrine: a ready-made, easily adaptable alibi that flips blame, muddies attribution, and buys time for diplomatic misdirection,” the report says.
For instance, a tweet from “Red Pill Media,” which identifies itself as “exposing Zionist terrorism” and has nearly 81,000 followers on its X account claims to be based in the US, but another user recently revealed that the account belongs to Abdul Abbas in Karachi, Pakistan.
Working through firebrand right wing social media influencers, Kremlin-affiliated propagandists also conducted “a coordinated assault” against Trump, according to the report.
“It’s a combination of an artificial voice with a real voice,” said an analyst with NCRI. “It destroyed the Democratic party and now they are going after MAGA.”
The network is quick to jump on and twist almost any story in the news cycle, and have recently trained their sights on President Trump, NCRI says.
“The network’s goals extend beyond crisis exploitation,” the report says. “After leveraging the false-flag frame to pose as MAGA loyalists, the same actors pivoted to accuse Donald Trump of pedophilia and to disseminate Iranian state leaks portraying IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) as an Israeli proxy.”
Federal regulators have issued a rare, urgent warning over the risk of Boeing 737 MAX engines malfunctioning and letting smoke into an airplane cabin or cockpit.
Damage to the engine’s oil system can cause smoke from hot oil to enter the airplane ventilation system and fill the cabin or cockpit – presenting an extreme danger of incapacitating the pilots, the National Transportation Safety Board wrote in a report released Wednesday.
The recommendations were inspired by two incidents on Southwest Airlines flights, when CFM International LEAP-1B engines malfunctioned after bird strikes and poured smoke into the cabins.
Boeing 737 engines at the company’s factory in Renton, Wash.AP
In December 2023, a Boeing 737-8 filled with “acrid white smoke” shortly after takeoff from New Orleans, La. It was so thick that the captain struggled to see the instrument panel in the cockpit, the NTSB said.
An engine on another flight in March 2023 was similarly damaged by a bird strike, allowing fog to funnel into the passenger cabin shortly after departing Havana, Cuba.
Both flights required emergency landings, and there were no injuries, the safety agency said.
The NTSB is recommending modifications to the engines, which are used on Boeing 737 MAX planes and Airbus A32 jets.
In an urgent notice, it is asking the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate whether LEAP-1A and LEAP-1C engines have the potential for the same issue.
The NTSB also expressed concern that flight crews are unaware of the potential smoke hazard and won’t know how to take action. The agency said it had urged the FAA to require operators like Boeing to alert crews of the smoke risk.
Damage to a CFM International LEAP-1B engine.NTSB / Southwest Airlines
Boeing has already revised its flight manuals for pilots detailing what steps to take to prevent smoke from entering the cockpit or cabin, the NTSB said.
“CFM International and Boeing have been working on a software design update. We support the NTSB’s recommendation,” Boeing told The Post in a statement.
GE Aerospace, which owns CFM International, told The Post it is also aligned with the NTSB’s recommendations and “the work is already underway.”
Many hospitals and health systems are opening new physician residency programs to expand training opportunities for medical students and bolster the pipeline of future physicians.
Below are 17 hospitals and health systems launching or announcing new programs in 2025.
Note: This is not an exhaustive list and was last updated June 19. If you’d like to add a new program to the list, please email Paige Twenter at ptwenter@beckershealthcare.com. Organizations are listed in alphabetical order.
BayCare Health System in Clearwater, Fla., will launch seven new graduate medical education programs in the 2025-26 academic year. These include the system’s first emergency medicine residency, four internal medicine programs, a transitional year program, and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship.
Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis are launching a rural family medicine residency program at Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital in Grand Rapids, Minn.
Flowers Hospital in Dothan, Ala., has received accreditation to launch an internal medicine residency program, the hospital said May 22.
Hannibal (Mo.) Regional Healthcare System will launch an internal medicine residency program in July 2026.
Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and the University of Central Florida are launching a transitional year residency program at HCA Florida West Hospital in Pensacola this July.
Independence Health System in Butler, Pa., is launching a family medicine residency program at Butler Memorial Hospital this summer.
Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa., has received approval from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to launch a diagnostic radiology residency program.
Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, Calif., is launching an internal medicine residency program this July.
McLeod Health is launching an internal medicine residency program at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, S.C., in July 2026.
MUSC Health inCharleston, S.C., is launching an internal medicine residency program at Lancaster (S.C.) Medical Center. The program will welcome its first class of eight students in July.
Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health earned accreditation for its first two obstetrics-gynecology residency programs, which will launch at Sutter Roseville (Calif.) Medical Center and Oakland, Calif.-based Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in July 2026. The system will also launch a family medicine rural residency program at Crescent City, Calif.-based Sutter Coast Hospital and a neurology residency program at Sutter Roseville Medical Center in 2026, according to Roseville Today.
Lubbock-based Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center will open a general surgery residency program at its Amarillo campus in 2026, KAMR-TV reported Feb. 22.
Three Crosses Regional Hospital in Las Cruces, N.M., earned approval from ACGME in January to launch an internal medicine residency program.
UC San Diego Health and Imperial County Behavioral Health Services will launch a psychiatry residency program next year.
Paramus, N.J.-based Valley Health System is launching a new general surgery residency program in July with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, TAPinto Ridgewoodreported May 16.
Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, Ark., and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences earned approval to launch a neurology and emergency medicine residency program in July 2026.
Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System is launching an obstetrics and gynecology residency program at Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie, Ga., the Marietta Daily Journal reported March 24.
