Nuclear-Armed Countries Are Flexing Their Muscles: What Are the Actual Risks?

Ryan Grim, Jeremy Scahill, and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Jon Elmer of Electronic Intifada to break down today’s major developments.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

The United States carried out airstrikes last month against three sites in Iran tied to its nuclear program. The attacks were the culmination of years of belligerence that began when Trump violated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and embarked on a strategy of confrontation with Iran, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.While the level of damage done to the sites remains unclear, the Iranian government has responded to the attacks by ceasing cooperation with international monitoring agencies. Iran is also hinting it retains the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon if it chooses.The standoff with Iran is just one aspect of a larger story of the reemergence of nuclear weapons and possible nuclear warfare as a major risk in the 21st century.The U.S. and Russia are currently in the process of building up to a new nuclear arms race, while, at present, China has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal of any country . Recently, the India and Pakistan conflict made many nervous that one of the countries would use nuclear weapons.After years of relative stability, the size of the nuclear club also looks very likely to grow with new nations potentially carrying out nuclear tests in the years ahead. These changes mean that the risk of a nuclear war is growing after the end of the Cold War rather than decreasing.Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Ankit Panda. Panda is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the author of the new book “The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon.”Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

The Israeli genocide in Gaza is entering its 22rd month, with a staggering toll of dead and wounded continuing to rise every day. Throughout the war, the U.S. and many European nations have acted as shields for Israel—defending it against legal scrutiny, providing diplomatic and political support, and continuing to fund and arm its military assault.Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Anand Gopal, a journalist focused on the region and the author of the forthcoming book on Syria, “Days of Love and Rage.”Gopal discusses the history of the laws of war and systemic problems in the international legal system. If the laws of war are not able to protect civilians during conflicts, what are they good for? As Gopal explains, the genocide in Gaza exposes the underlying contradictions of the international legal system. Even though there are laws on the books, the international arbiters supposed to enforce them are made up of the belligerent states themselves. Hussain and Gopal discuss the international legal order and how the system itself makes civilian deaths inevitable.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Israel has continued to intensify its attacks across the Gaza Strip as President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he hopes a ceasefire “is going to happen and we're looking for it to happen sometime next week.” His comments come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he will travel to the U.S. this weekend and is expected to meet with Trump, his national security team, and U.S. Congressional leaders. Despite Trump’s public campaign for an agreement for a ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas has said there have been no substantive new proposals submitted and that the discussions seem to be exclusively between Israel and the U.S. Meanwhile, Israel launched a new series of raids in cities and villages across the occupied West Bank Tuesday as part of a continuation of a months-long series of assaults and ground incursions that have resulted in the largest forced displacement operations against Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967. Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous are joined by two Palestinian analysts for a wide-ranging discussion on all of the latest developments: Jehad Abusalim, co-editor of “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire” and Executive Director of the Institute for Palestine Studies-USA, and Abdaljawad Omar, an adjunct professor at Birzeit University and a writer based in Ramallah.Photo: Donald Trump speaks to the press on July 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

It has been ten days since Israel launched an unprovoked campaign of sustained bombing against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hundreds of Iranian civilians have been killed as Israel assassinated dozens of military and intelligence leaders, including commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as nuclear scientists and other technical experts. In some cases, these assassinations have been conducted in crowded residential buildings.This weekend, the U.S. overtly joined Israel’s war against Iran, launching a series of bombings targeting several Iranian nuclear sites in Operation Midnight Hammer. President Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s nuclear capability has been totally decimated and praised himself for his decision to bomb Iran despite no evidence that Iran posed any imminent threat to the United States. Iran has suggested these attacks, which included the use of fourteen 30,000 pound bombs, did far less damage than the U.S. and Israel have suggested.On Monday, in response to the U.S. bombing, Iran fired missiles at U.S. Central Command headquarters at al Udeid air base in Qatar. This weekend, Trump and other U.S. officials threatened even greater use of force against Iran should it retaliate against the unprovoked U.S. bombings this weekend. The U.S. position is that Iran must capitulate to the demands of the U.S. and Israel.Shortly before Iran launched its missile strikes on U.S. CENTCOM in Qatar, Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill spoke to the Iranian international law scholar Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi to discuss the widening U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. In March, she was suspended and ultimately fired by Yale University after a Zionist-led campaign to portray her as a member of a terror organization. She served as the deputy Director of the Law and Political Economy Project at Yale.She is currently a scholar of international law and geopolitical economy and she is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tehran. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

The Israeli government launched an unprovoked attack on Iran last week, killing hundreds of Iranians in a surprise attack on the capital city of Tehran. The two countries have traded missiles in the days since, killing hundreds of civilians.Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for the U.S. to become directly involved in the fighting as a means not only to set back the Iranian nuclear program but overthrow the government itself.In this episode, Drop Site journalist Murtaza Hussain talks to defense analyst Shahryar Pasandideh about how this war started, what each side wants, and the implications of U.S. involvement in another major conflict in the region.Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

On Friday, Israel launched a full-scale military operation against Iran, carrying out strikes across the country that killed at least 224 people by Sunday afternoon. Iran’s Health Ministry says over 90% of those killed were civilians. Hospitals describe a “bloodbath,” with a constant flow of wounded since the first strikes. Medical facilities have been struck, and Red Crescent workers are among the dead.Israel says it is targeting nuclear and military infrastructure, including bases and defense facilities, but has also bombed energy sites and residential areas and called for the evacuation of a large residential area of Tehran.This week, Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain are joined by Farzan Sabet (@IranWonk on X), Managing Researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute and an expert on Iran and regional security. They examine Israel and Iran’s military strategies, the possibility of an off-ramp, and whether the U.S. is preparing to intervene directly. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Israel attacked Iran early on Friday morning, targeting the capital Tehran and other parts of the country with multiple airstrikes in a dramatic escalation of its regional war. Explosions were reported in cities home to major sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program. Initial reports indicate that Israel may have targeted the homes of Iranian political and military officials, as well as figures related to its nuclear program. Iranian state TV reported that a number of senior officials were killed, including the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami. The attacks targeted at least six military bases around Tehran, including the Iranian military complex Parchin, according to the New York Times. Broadcasting the aftermath of the attacks in Tehran, Iranian state television showed that two residential buildings had collapsed, killing and injuring many, including at least one child. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu characterized the attack, named Operation Rising Lion, as a “pre-emptive strike,” before declaring a state of general emergency inside Israel in anticipation of a likely Iranian retaliation. In a speech delivered Thursday night, Netanyahu detailed a full-scale military operation targeting Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure, claiming it was necessary to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and vowing that the strikes would continue “for as many days as it takes.”Ryan Grim and Murtaza Hussain discuss the breaking story on Drop Site's livestream.Read Murtaza Hussain’s breakdown of Israel’s attacks on Iran at Drop Site.Subscribe to Drop Site for continuing coverage: dropsitenews.com/subscribe. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

The failure of global and regional efforts to stop Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip is now giving rise to a burgeoning grassroots movement aimed at breaking the siege of the territory and building direct solidarity with Palestinians. On Monday, an activist group sailing on the ship the Madleen was intercepted by the Israeli military. That ship was attempting to break the naval blockade on the territory, while delivering a symbolic amount of aid to Gaza. The activists on the Madleen, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, were detained by Israel after being abducted in international waters. Some were subsequently deported.Their effort is only one of many civil society campaigns now trying to break Israel’s stranglehold over the territory. International activists are now preparing to march by land to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. A convoy drawing citizens from over 50 countries, and including members of labor unions, solidarity movements, and human rights organizations, is now commencing a campaign called the Global March to Gaza. Organizers and participants are planning to converge in Cairo this week, before marching from the Egyptian capital on foot towards Rafah, where they plan to stage a sit-in aimed at pressuring authorities to reopen the crossing.The convoy hopes that their efforts with help halt the genocide against Palestinians, now nearing its second year, while forcing the resumption of humanitarian aid to the besieged coastal territory. Drop Site journalists Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Murtaza Hussain discussed the convoy and its aims this week with organizers Seif Abukeshek and Melanie Schweizer, who are preparing to depart as part of the campaign this week. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe

Protests have taken hold of Turkey in recent months, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to consolidate more and more power in the country. Recently, Erdogan’s government arrested a major political opponent, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, leading to widespread demonstrations.As Erdogan consolidates power, the government is engaging in a new peace process with left-leaning Kurdish groups that have long maintained an insurgency against the state. Simultaneously, Turkey has been expanding its influence in Syria, Ukraine, the Mediterranean, and even Western Europe.Erdogan has led Turkey for over two decades, reshaping the country from its republican roots into a more right-wing, nationalist, and Islamist state. To discuss the history of Turkey, its political evolution, and recent developments, Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by Selim Koru. Koru is the author of “New Turkey and the Far Right: How Reactionary Nationalism Remade a Country” and an analyst at the Ankara-based Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey. Listen above or on the Drop Site News channel on Apple, Spotify, RSS, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Drop Site News at www.dropsitenews.com/subscribe