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Biden ‘Confident’ There Will Be No US Debt Default

President Joe Biden speaks about the debt limit talks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden speaks about the debt limit talks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
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Biden ‘Confident’ There Will Be No US Debt Default

President Joe Biden speaks about the debt limit talks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Washington. (AP)
President Joe Biden speaks about the debt limit talks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 17, 2023, in Washington. (AP)

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is confident the US will avoid an unprecedented and catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive as he prepared to leave for a global summit in Japan.

“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget and America will not default,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He said he and lawmakers will come together “because there's no alternative.”

Biden’s remarks came just before he departed Washington for the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and one day after he convened a second Oval Office meeting with congressional leaders to determine how to avert debt default.

The president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tasked a handful of negotiators to try and close out a final deal, with negotiations beginning late Tuesday. Those people include Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president; legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell and Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young for the administration, and Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., a close McCarthy ally, for the Republicans.

“I think at the end of the day we do not have a debt default,” McCarthy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “The problem is, the timeline is very short.”

Negotiators have been scrambling to strike an agreement that would unlock a path forward for raising the debt limit by June 1, which is when the Treasury Department says the US could begin defaulting on its obligations and trigger financial chaos.

The national debt currently stands at $31.4 trillion. An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending; it would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.

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World

Israel Says it Is Facing an ‘Existential Threat’ as Iran Builds up its Military Capacities  

Israeli defenses intercept Iranian missiles over Tel Aviv on June 22. (AFP)
Israeli defenses intercept Iranian missiles over Tel Aviv on June 22. (AFP)
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Israel Says it Is Facing an ‘Existential Threat’ as Iran Builds up its Military Capacities  

Israeli defenses intercept Iranian missiles over Tel Aviv on June 22. (AFP)
Israeli defenses intercept Iranian missiles over Tel Aviv on June 22. (AFP)

Iran is making “hysteric” efforts to produce up to 3,000 ballistic missiles per month, Israel's Maariv newspaper reported on Sunday.

“Although such missiles are considered old-fashioned, imprecise, and can be shot down before they reach their targets, the time they reach their targets is enough to cause serious damage,” the newspaper said quoting Israeli security sources.

In an article published in Maariv, writer Anna Persky said Iran is reviving its nuclear program and is resuming the production of ballistic missiles, but not yet its uranium enrichment.

Quoting Israeli security sources, she wrote: “There has been an ongoing movement in recent weeks around the nuclear reactors that were destroyed in the recent Israeli-US attacks on Iran.”

The sources stressed that the Israeli army’s new military doctrine is based on preemptive strikes to prevent threats before they materialize, but at the same time, they did not rule out a preemptive attack from Tehran.

Persky wrote that Iran is restoring facilities related to the production of ballistic missiles and nuclear facilities damaged by strikes during the 12-day war in June.

For Israel, Iran's nuclear program still remains a serious concern.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to present the Iranian threat during his scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump” on December 29. “He will try to figure out if Trump is willing to participate in a new war against Iran,” she said.

Persky wrote that Netanyahu will present to the US President with a number of alternatives, including an independent Israeli attack with limited US assistance, a joint strike or a full-scale US operation.

“At the meeting, the main issue will not be what Israel wants to do, but what the United States is willing to offer,” she noted.

In Israel, the “inevitability of a war with Iran” was the headline of all Israeli newspapers over the weekend.

“Iran ramps up missile tests and military drills, renews threats toward Israel,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth in its headline on Sunday.

It said amid recent reports that Tehran is producing ballistic missiles at a rapid pace and in large quantities, Iran has returned to threatening Israel and showcasing its military capabilities, much as it did before the June war.

But Maariv said the war initiative will rather come from Israel, which perceives Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.

Israel is worried about missing the current opportunity. “Today, Iran is still in the midst of reconstruction, but tomorrow it will be more protected, more distributed, and its offensive capability will be more expensive and more dangerous,” Persky wrote.

World

Moscow Car Blast Kills Russian General 

An investigator works at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate, was reportedly killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2025. (Russia's Investigative Committee/Handout via Reuters)
An investigator works at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate, was reportedly killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2025. (Russia's Investigative Committee/Handout via Reuters)
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Moscow Car Blast Kills Russian General 

An investigator works at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate, was reportedly killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2025. (Russia's Investigative Committee/Handout via Reuters)
An investigator works at the scene where Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff's army operational training directorate, was reportedly killed in a car bomb in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2025. (Russia's Investigative Committee/Handout via Reuters)

A senior Russian general was killed in southern Moscow on Monday after an explosive device placed under his car went off, investigators said in a statement.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which examines major crimes, said it had opened a probe into the "murder" of Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the training department within the General Staff.

The possibility that the attack was "linked" to "Ukrainian special forces" was among the lines of inquiry, it said.

Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been blamed for several attacks targeting Russian military officials and pro-Kremlin personalities in Russia and in Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.

General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy of the General Staff, was killed in a car blast near Moscow in April.

In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, was killed when a booby-trapped electric scooter exploded in Moscow, an attack claimed by Ukraine's SBU security service.

A Russian military blogger, Maxim Fomin, was killed when a statuette exploded in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023.

And in August 2022, a car bomb killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin.

World

Iran Does Not Rule Out New Israeli Attacks against it

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shake hands after a joint news conference at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shake hands after a joint news conference at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
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Iran Does Not Rule Out New Israeli Attacks against it

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shake hands after a joint news conference at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shake hands after a joint news conference at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Photo via AP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday said Tehran “does not rule out” the possibility of a new Israeli or US attack on its nuclear facilities, but remains “fully prepared, even more than before.”

“This doesn't mean that we welcome another war, but it is exactly to prevent a war. And the best way to prevent war is to be prepared for that. And we are fully prepared,” Araghchi said in an interview with Russia Today (RT).

The minister said Iran has rebuilt everything that was damaged by Israeli and US strikes during the 12-day war in June.

“If they want to repeat the same failed experience, they will not achieve a better result,” he stressed.

Araghchi made the remarks during a visit last week to Moscow, where he held political and diplomatic talks with Russian officials, including his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Araghchi said he is no longer in contact with US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, revealing that their communication channel has been inactive for months.

Iran and the envoy had held five rounds of talks between April and June. A sixth round, scheduled for June 15, was canceled after Israel launched its strikes on Iran.

Araghchi said that following the war, he maintained contacts with Witkoff. He said that while the US insisted on resuming negotiations, it had adopted what he described as a “very wrong” approach.

Commenting on the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in Natanz and Fordow in June, the FM acknowledged: “Our facilities have been damaged, seriously damaged.”

However, he added: “There is also another fact, that our technology is still there, and technology cannot be bombed. And our determination is also there. We have a very legitimate right to peaceful use of nuclear technology, including enrichment.”

Araghchi reiterated that Iran is ready to provide full assurance that its nuclear program is peaceful as it did in 2015 when Tehran agreed to build confidence over the peaceful nature of its program in exchange of the lifting of sanctions.

He noted that military operations have failed to achieve their goals, while diplomacy was a successful experience.

Asked if he expects Israel will maintain its approach in 2026, the FM replied: “They will continue their aggressive behavior in 2026 due to the full impunity which is given to them by the US and Europeans.”

NBC News reported last week that Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli strikes in June, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former US officials briefed on the plans.

On Iran’s relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Araghchi said: “We remain a committed member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and are ready to cooperate with the Agency.”

“We have a simple question for the Agency: Please tell us, how should a nuclear facility that has been attacked be inspected? And there is no answer to this question, because there is no precedent to this,” he added.