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Iran launched missile attacks Monday on a U.S. military bases in Qatar and Iraq, retaliating for the American bombing of its nuclear sites and escalating tensions in the volatile region. People in Doha, Qatars capital, stopped and looked up as missiles flew and interceptors fired and struck at least one missile in the night sky. Iran announced on state television that it attacked American forces stationed at Qatars Al Udeid Air Base. A caption on screen called it a mighty and successful response” to “Americas aggression as martial music played. Iran also targeted the Ain al-Assad base housing U.S. troops in western Iraq, an Iraqi security official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The attacks came shortly after Qatar closed its airspace as a precaution amid threats from Iran. Just before the explosions, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on the social platform X: We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer. In the past, Iran has threatened American forces at Al Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. militarys Central Command. Qatar, across the Persian Gulf from Iran, maintains diplomatic relations with Iran and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran. Earlier in the day, Israel expanded its war against Iran to include targets associated with the country’s struggling theocracy, striking the gate of a Tehran prison notorious for holding political activists and hitting the headquarters of the military force that suppressed recent protests. As plumes of thick smoke rose over Tehran, Israel was attacked with yet another barrage of Iranian missiles and drones. The persistent fire has become a reality for civilians in both countries since Israel started the war to target Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. On the 11th day of the conflict, Israel said it attacked regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran, but Israeli officials insisted they did not seek the overthrow of Iran’s government, their archenemy since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Israeli military warned Iranians that it would continue to attack military sites around Tehran over the coming days as its focuses has shifted to symbolic targets as well. The military issued the warning on the social platform X, though Iranians are struggling to access the outside world as an internet shutdown has crippled the country. The latest strikes unfolded only hours after President Donald Trump openly raised the possibility himself after just a day earlier inserting America into the war with its unprecedented stealth-bomber strike on three Iranian nuclear sites. If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldnt there be a Regime change??? he asked on his Truth Social website. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later described Trump as simply raising a question. However, suggestions of overthrowing the Iranian government drew new anger from Tehran, which insists it will not negotiate at this time and is threatening to retaliate directly against either American troops or interests in a Mideast already inflamed by the still-raging Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Tehran strikes open new chapter of war In the Tehran strikes, Israel blew open a gate at Evin prison. Iranian state television shared black-and-white surveillance footage of the strike at the facility known for holding dual nationals and Westerners often used by Iran as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West. Evin also has specialized units for political prisoners run by the paramilitary, all-volunteer Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The facility is the target of both U.S. and European Union sanctions. There were no immediate reports of casualties in Iran or significant damage, though the semiofficial Tasnim news agency said there had been a power cut reported outside of Tehran following the Israeli strikes. Iranian state television also aired footage it described as being shot inside Evin, with prisoners under control inside the facility. However, the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran expressed worry about the condition of prisoners there. Many families of current detainees have expressed deep concern about the safety and condition of their loved ones held inside the prison, it said. Earlier Monday, Iranian Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of joint staff of armed forces, warned Washington that its strikes had given Iranian forces a free hand to act against U.S. interests and its army. Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East, many in locations within range of short-range Iranian missiles. The Israeli military also confirmed it struck roads around Irans Fordo enrichment facility to obstruct access to the site. The underground site was one of those hit in Sundays attack by the United States on three nuclear facilities. The Israeli military did not elaborate. The Iranian dictator will be punished with full force for attacking the Israeli home front, Israel’s Defense Ministry said. According to an Israeli official familiar with the governments strategy, Israel is targeting these sites to put pressure on the Iranian administration but is not actively seeking to topple it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal government deliberations. Nuclear fears mount after US strikes In Vienna, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said he expected there to be heavy damage at the Fordo facility following Sunday’s U.S. airstrike there with sophisticated bunker-buster bombs. With the strikes Sunday on Iranian nuclear sites, the United States inserted itself into Israels war, prompting fears of a wider regional conflict. Iran said the U.S. had crossed a very big red line with its risky gambit to strike the three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs. Several Iranian officials, including Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, have claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites ahead of time. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the agency’s board of governors Monday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi informed him on June 13 that Iran would adopt special measures to protect nuclear equipment and materials. I indicated that any transfer of nuclear material from a safeguarded facility to another location in Iran must be declared, Grossi said, without saying whether Iran had responded. Iran presses on attacking Israel ran described its Monday attack on Israel as a new wave of its Operation True Promise 3, saying it was targeting the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, according to Iranian state television. Explosions were also heard in Jerusalem, possibly from air defense systems in action, and Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency rescue service said there had been no reports of injuries. In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the war. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 950 people and wounded 3,450 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from Iranian unrest such as the protests surrounding the death of Masha Amini in 2022, said of those killed, it identified 380 civilians and 253 security force personnel. Calls for de-escalation The U.S. described its attack on the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan nuclear site, as a one-off to take out Iran’s nuclear program, but Trump has warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates. Mousavi described the American attacks as violating Irans sovereignty and being tantamount to invading the country, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Russia is one of Irans closest allies and on Monday, President Vladimir Putin said after meeting in Moscow with Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, that they had explored how we can get out of todays situation. Putin called the Israeli and American attacks on Iran an absolutely unprovoked aggression. Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only, previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the U.S., France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60%a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. David Rising, Jon Gambrell and Melanie Lidman, Associated Press Associated Press writers Josef Federman, Elise Morton, Geir Moulson, Ella Joyner and Stephanie Liechtenstein contributed to this report.
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The week is already off to an extremely hot, and dangerous, start for many in the Eastern half of the U.S., as experts say hundreds of cities could see record-breaking heat.Sunday’s temperatures were above average, but the week beginning Monday June 23, 2025, is set to be even hotter, with a heat-dome encompassing more of the U.S. The forecast has the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing warnings for large portions of the country, mostly in the central and Northeast regions. Meteorologists believe heat records could be smashed in at least 250 cities. On Monday, locations like Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia are under extreme heat warnings, as they are expected to experience 100-degree (or hotter) heata number New York’s Central Park hasn’t reached since the summer of 2012, according to the NWS. Likewise, Philadelphia hasn’t warmed that much since 1994, while Boston hit 100 just three summers ago. As the heat will stretch across the eastern half of the country, heat advisories are also in place for cities like Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. NWS says the heat risk is level 4the highest level of extreme heatand while in some locations the heat is expected to break by Tuesday, in others, it will be just getting started. Temperatures in the Northeast aren’t set to break until Thursday. And it’s not just the heat making things uncomfortable. It’s the humidity. According to Weather.com, humidity could make the already stifling heat feel even hotter, especially for Midwestern and Northeast cities. The combination of high temperatures and humidity is more dangerous than dry heat, experts say, due to the fact that our bodies aren’t able to cool themselves as effectively when humidity is also high. The heightened heat index will also mean that nighttime will bring little relief. “Hot temperatures, oppressive humidity and very light winds are expected today, leading to dangerous levels of heat,” the National Weather Service in Boston said in a post on X. Tuesday will be “the hottest day of the stretch,” the agency said. Extreme heat isn’t new, but with each passing summer, more heat records are being broken. According to a recent World Weather Attribution report, about half of the world’s population experienced around one month of extreme heat due to human-made climate change over the past year. Although floods and cyclones often dominate headlines, heat is arguably the deadliest extreme event, the report said.
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On TikTok, an ASMR creator dips a spoon into a bowl of molten-hot lava, brings it to her lips, and eats it like its honey. Another creator crunches down into a seemingly radioactive moon stone, which is glowing so brightly that it’s visible through her cheeks. And a third takes a casual bite out of a cinnamon bun made of glass. Thankfully, none of these women are real: All three clips are an example of AI-generated ASMR. ASMR is an acronym for autonomous sensory meridian response, which describes a physical tingling sensation triggered by certain sounds or visuals. Videos designed to elicit these responses have been popular on YouTube for more than a decade, and have also found massive popularity as short-form clips on TikTok. Over the past few weeks, a subcategory of fantastical, often physically impossible AI-generated ASMR has started to take social media by storm. The key to AI ASMR? Google Veo 3 For anyone who regularly enjoys ASMR, AI-generated content has become unavoidable in recent weeks. The aforementioned lava clip, for example, has 2.8 million views on TikTokand its creator, @asmraiworks, has several other videos boasting similar view counts. Another AI ASMR TikToker, @impossibleais, began posting just 10 days ago on June 10, and has already racked up millions of views and nearly 200,000 followers. On YouTube, compilations of these videos are steadily gaining traction, while creators across platforms are now offering paid courses to teach other users how to make viral AI ASMR. @satisfyingclips50 Crystal eating ASMR #asmr #asmrvideo #asmrsounds #satisfying #satisfyingvideo #mukbangfoodasmr #aiasmr original sound – SatisfyingClips The key to this new genre of content appears to be Googles Veo 3 AI video generator, which debuted this March. Unlike predecessors such as OpenAIs Sora, Veo 3 can create sound and dialogue alongside its photorealistic videomaking it the perfect medium for ASMR content, which relies on satisfying taps, crunches, and slurps to accompany its visuals. Veo 3 with native sound is such a huge unlock here, wrote Olivia Moore, AI partner at the venture capital firm a16z, in an X thread explaining the trend. This is now a one step creation process, versus having to generate and then sync each individual sound with the video. @tacokittyasmr MUKBANG ai asmr #foryoupage #oddlysatisfying #slimeasmr #foryoupag #fouryou #aigenerated #fyppp original sound – Considering that modern ASMR often relies on bright, eye-catching images to attract new viewers, it was only a matter of time before the space became inundated with AI tech that can create content on demand. Now, it seems, the floodgates are officially open. Lava, rocks, and glass fruit, oh my! Currently, there are a few different types of AI ASMR videos that are especially primed to capture the publics attention. On the tamer end of the spectrum are classic ASMR mukbang vdeos, which involve creators eating food on camera. The AI-generated versions tend to follow similar scripts to a typical mukbanglike the creator talking to the camera and taking overly large bites of foodbut with a slight uncanny valley feel and occasional glitches in the actual physics of eating. Next is a somewhat stranger category of mukbangs that are only possible through AI, which feature AI-generated people eating things like rocks, molten lava, diamonds, crystals, and more. @impossibleais Cutting Berries pt. 2! #asmr #asmrsounds #satisfying #berries #fruit green to blue (slowed + reverbed) – daniel.mp3 Most popular by far, though, are videos that include the shaving, slicing, and dicing of objects that would normally be impossible to cut. Glass fruits are a particular favorite among this crowd, with TikToks of a sliced glass blue raspberry, strawberry, and coconut accruing 4.5 million, 26 million, and 67.4 million views, respectively. @wildwhispers_asmr Glass Fruit Slicing ASMR Pt 4 #ai #fruit #asmr #fyp original sound – WildWhispersASMR The most common reaction to this content among regular ASMR enjoyers appears to be a kind of grudging appreciation. This is the only ai I approve, one user wrote in the comments of a lava-eating video. Finally ai used correctly, another commenter supplied under the aforementioned blue raspberry video. @impossibleais Cutting Glass Fruit (berry edition) #asmr #satisfying #asmrsounds #fruit green to blue (slowed + reverbed) – daniel.mp3 Still, while the majority of viewers seem to find themselves enjoying this new wave of ASMR content, its also spawning an undercurrent of existential dread at the technologys increasingly photorealistic capabilities. On nearly every viral AI ASMR video, some iteration of the same comment is among the most-liked responses: I am so getting scammed when I get older.
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