— A new intelligence report claims Iran is continuing with its active nuclear weapons program, which it says can be used to launch missiles over long distances. 

The startling intelligence gathering of Austrian officials contradicts the assessment of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).  Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the American intelligence community ‘continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.’

Austria’s version of the FBI — the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — wrote Monday in an intelligence report,’In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, the Islamic Republic of Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond.’

The Austrian domestic intelligence agency report added, ‘The Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances.’

According to an intelligence document obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, ‘Iran has developed sophisticated sanctions-evasion networks, which has benefited Russia.’ 

The Austrian intelligence findings could be an unwanted wrench in President Trump’s negotiation process to resolve the atomic crisis with Iran’s rulers because the data outlined in the report suggests the regime will not abandon its drive to secure a nuclear weapon.

In response to the Austrian intelligence, a White House official told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump is committed to Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon or the capacity to build one.’

The danger of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism (and its illegal atomic weapons program) was cited 99 times in the 211-page report that covers pressing threats to Austria’s democracy. 

‘Vienna is home to one of the largest embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Europe, which disguises intelligence officers with diplomatic,’ the Austrian intelligence report noted.

‘Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction,’ the Austrian intelligence agency said.

In 2021, a Belgium court convicted Asadollah Asadi, a former Iranian diplomat based in Vienna, for planning to blow up a 2018 opposition meeting of tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents held outside Paris. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as President Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, attended the event in France.

When asked about the differences in conclusions between the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Austrian intelligence report, David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘The ODNI report is stuck in the past, a remnant of the fallacious unclassified 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate].

‘The Austrian report in general is similar to German and British assessments. Both governments, by the way, made clear to (the) U.S. IC [intelligence community] in 2007 that they thought the U.S. assessment was wrong that the Iranian nuclear weapons program ended in 2003.

‘The German assessment is from BND [Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service] station chief in D.C. at that time. The British info is from a senior British non-proliferation official I was having dinner with the day the 2007 NIE was made public. The German said the U.S. was misinterpreting data they all possessed.’ 

The Austrian intelligence findings that Tehran is working on an active atomic weapons program ‘seems clear enough,’ said Albright.

In 2023, Fox News Digital revealed a fresh batch of European intelligence reports showed that Iran sought to bypass U.S. and EU sanctions to secure technology for its nuclear weapons program with a view toward testing an atomic bomb.

European intelligence agencies have documented prior to 2015 and after the Iran nuclear deal( JCPOA) was agreed upon that Tehran continued efforts to illegally secure technology for its atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction programs. 

The Austrian intelligence report noted that Iran provides weapons to the U.S.-designated terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as to Syrian militias.

A spokesperson for ODNI declined to comment. The U.S. State Department and U.S. National Security Council did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital press queries.

President Donald Trump announced he will nominate Emil Bove, a Justice Department official and his former defense attorney, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a controversial choice that comes as the president continues to attack so-called ‘activist’ judges for blocking his agenda.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised Bove as ‘SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone.’

‘He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,’ Trump added.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also praised his nomination on X. Emil has been ‘indispensable partner at the Department of Justice’ she said, and ‘has worked tirelessly from day one as we make America safe again.’

‘It is hard to imagine going to work without Emil, but our loss here at DOJ will be the country’s gain!’ she added.

There are two vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. If confirmed, Bove he would serve a lifetime appointment on the federal bench.

Bove faces an uncertain path to confirmation, as Democrats have sharply criticized President Trump’s efforts to install loyalists atop the DOJ and FBI. His nomination is likely to spark a contentious confirmation battle, with Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats expected to use the process to press Bove under oath on some of the administration’s most controversial actions.

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal scholar and senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, voiced some of these concerns on social media Wednesday afternoon. 

‘Trump’s assurance that Emil Bove as a judge would do ‘anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ presents an odd and highly politicized understanding of the judicial role,’ he said on X. 

News of his nomination comes weeks after Trump installed Ed Martin, his controversial former nominee to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to serve as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. The role gives Martin broad oversight, including leadership of the so-called ‘weaponization working group’ within the Justice Department formed under Trump.

Prior to his installation at the Justice Department, Bove spent nearly 10 years as a U.S. prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. He also defended Trump in two of his criminal trials following his first term in the White House.

In each of these roles and at DOJ, Bove’s hard-charging tactics have solidified his reputation as a fierce, loyal and, at times, aggressive leader. 

He has emerged as the man behind some of the Justice Department’s most contentious actions during Trump’s second term, prompting some officials to resign rather than carry out his marching orders. 

Shortly after taking office, Bove sent a memo threatening state and city officials with criminal charges or civil penalties if they failed to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration or slow-walked their orders on enforcement. 

It was also Bove who ordered federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York to file a motion to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. That order prompted a string of resignations from personnel, including acting U.S attorney for the section Danielle Sassoon, who chose to leave DOJ rather than drop the case.

Fox News also reported earlier this year that Bove was behind an exhaustive questionnaire sent to FBI agents detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigations. 

Questions ranged from agents’ participation in any grand jury subpoenas to whether the agents worked or responded to leads from another FBI field office or if they worked as a case agent for investigations.

Former Justice Department officials have cited concerns that the probe or any retaliatory measures carried out as a result could have a chilling effect on the work of the FBI, including its more than 52 separate field offices.

Ed Whelan, a conservative legal scholar and senior Justice Department official during the George W. Bush administration, voiced some of these concerns on social media Wednesday afternoon. ‘Trump’s assurance that Emil Bove as a judge would do ‘anything else that is necessary to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN’ presents an odd and highly politicized understanding of the judicial role,’ he said on X.

The group cited in particular the order from then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to terminate the entire FBI senior leadership team and the assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office. 

President Donald Trump said he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy in the coming weeks ‘if necessary.’ 

The president’s comments come just after he condemned Russia’s recent large-scale strike against Ukraine. 

Russian forces launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight Sunday. The attack, which has been called the largest aerial attack of the war so far, targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said that at least 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

Though past strikes have proven more deadly, the attack is the largest-scale aerial assault of the war in terms of the number of weapons: 298 drones and 69 missiles were launched.

The president on Wednesday was asked if he believes Putin actually wants to end the war with Ukraine, to which Trump replied: ‘I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.’ 

‘Within two weeks, we’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not,’ Trump told reporters at the Oval Office during a swearing-in ceremony for Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. attorney. ‘And if he is, we will respond a little bit differently.’ 

Trump said his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is ‘doing a phenomenal job’ and ‘dealing with them very strongly right now.’ 

‘They seem to want to do something,’ Trump said. 

But Trump again condemned Russia’s attack, saying he is ‘very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed — in what you would call a negotiation.’ 

‘I’m very disappointed by that,’ Trump said. ‘Very, very disappointing.’ 

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed a willingness to sit down again with Trump and with Putin in Geneva. 

When asked if he was planning to sit down with Putin and Zelenskyy, Trump said he would be willing. 

‘Well, if it’s necessary… we have to, I think at this point. I wish you would have been that way a couple of months ago, but at this point, we’re working on President Putin, and we’ll see where we are,’ Trump said. ‘I think we’re doing fine, but we’ll see.’ 

Special Envoy Keith Kellogg is preparing for possible talks in Geneva, though it remains unclear when they will be held. Russia has yet to agree to the U.S.’s peace proposal, and its foreign ministry Tuesday claimed it was still working on its memorandum of terms. 

Russia has suggested a possible meeting in Istabul, Turkey. 

Meanwhile, the president again on Wednesday said: ‘I don’t like what’s happening. It’s one thing I’ll say — I don’t like when I see rockets being shot into cities. That’s no good. We’re not going to allow it.’

The president, over the weekend, blasted Putin, saying he is ‘killing a lot of people.’ 

‘I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,’ he said over the weekend. ‘I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.’ 

In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy called for an international response to the attack.

‘The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,’ he wrote on Telegram. ‘Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.’

Trump expanded on his comments later Sunday, writing on Truth Social that Putin ‘has gone absolutely CRAZY!’ while also criticizing Zelenskyy.

‘I’ve always said that (Putin) wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!’ the social media post read. ‘Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.’

‘This is a War that would never have started if I were President,’ Trump concluded. ‘This is Zelenskyy’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not ‘Trump’s,’ I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred.’ 

It was Mark Twain who quipped that the ‘great works’ are books that everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read. We could easily say the same thing about the U.S. national debt: It is something everyone wants to have cut, but nobody wants to cut.

As the House Republicans’ big beautiful bill moseys over to the Senate for potential passage, there is growing concern among many on the right that the spending cuts are insufficient, and that the bill puts the country on the road to much greater debt.

Senators Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have all promised opposition to what they see as the ‘big bloated bill,’ and DOGE architect Elon Musk has expressed disappointment that the alarm he is raising about the debt, and his cost-cutting recommendations are being ignored.

As usual, this attempt to stand athwart massive spending while yelling, ‘Stop!’ is an uphill battle. Here are five reasons why deficit reduction has been the hardest of political nuts to crack, and how these reasons might be addressed.

1. The Deficit Is Too Abstract

To put it bluntly, very few American voters have a real working understanding of how the national debt actually works. Sometimes it feels like very few members of Congress do either, but it’s a big part of why debt cutting is not a political winner. 

Most people vote around issues they feel in their gut, like crime, high prices or immigration, not cold-calculated things like debt and monetary policy. While the Tea Party of 15 years ago may have been an exception, it was a movement of the managerial class, who understood debt, not a broad cross-section of voters.

2. Voters Like Pork

People like free stuff, even when it’s not really free. Even those who support cutting the deficit can get a bit testy when you threaten their slice of the pie, or the money flowing into their communities.

The New York Congressional delegation, led by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-NY, just secured bigger federal deductions for state and local taxes for their constituents. Sure, it comes at the expense of better-run states, but as they say in Brooklyn, it is what it is.

3. Like Climate Change, There Is Deficit Fatigue

There are two issues in American politics that voters have been warned for 40 years must be addressed immediately or else all hell will break loose by next Tuesday. They are climate change and the deficit, and Tuesday never really seems to come. 

This is not to say that our staggering national debt hasn’t done great harm to our country; It absolutely has, far more than climate change. But that harm is not felt in an obvious and catastrophic way, so it does not light a fire under voters.

4. Superpower Status

There is a sense among many Americans, and not entirely without cause, that our country’s status as the world’s foremost superpower protects us from being hurt by our foreign creditors. We have nukes, after all, so what are they going to do? Robocall the White House during dinner?

This is, of course, a facile understanding, but it underscores that even though people are concerned about the debt, or say they are, they do not feel it as an existential threat.

5. Neither Party Will Commit To Deficit Cuts

The final reason why Americans have a hard time getting excited about efforts to cut the debt is that both parties always swear they will do it while they are out of power, and never do it when they are in power. They can make the reservation to cut the deficit, but they never show up.

This has led many Americans to just assume it’s never going to happen.

Make no mistake, these are significant headwinds that have stalled out almost every effort to cut the debt for decades. But it doesn’t mean they cannot be overcome. 

This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in with serious criticism of some of his GOP compatriots.

‘We have a Republican Congress, and to this day, we’re in the end of May, past Memorial Day, and not one cent in DOGE cuts have been implemented by the Congress,’ he said.

DeSantis is an interesting voice in this debate. He went from winning a governor’s race in then-centrist Florida by the skin of his teeth to winning reelection by 20 points in a mere four years, and he did it not by saying things, but by doing things.

DeSantis took risky positions on things like COVID policy and the economy because he trusted that the results, even in the short-term, would be beneficial. He gambled that he would be rewarded for them, which he surely was.

The fiscal hawks need to talk less about doom and gloom and talk more about how lowering the debt can open doors to things like better credit, homeownership, financial security, and better yet, get a few of these cost-cutting measures past the goalie.

The American people will not be threatened into supporting cost-cutting measures to slash the debt, but they can be convinced. And nothing could be more convincing that this Congress enacting some serious and responsible cost-cutting actions right now.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is revisiting a much-maligned year-old photo from Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

The NRSC, which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, marked National Hamburger Day on Wednesday with a new video titled, ‘We Grill Right,’ which spotlights Schumer’s viral social media post from last year’s Father’s Day.

In the photo that appeared in the 2024 post, Schumer appeared to place a slice of cheese on an uncooked burger patty.

‘Our family has lived in an apartment building for all our years, but my daughter and her wife just bought a house with a backyard and for the first time we’re having a barbeque with hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill!’ Schumer wrote in his post.

Schumer was quickly grilled on X, formerly Twitter, by a chorus of conservatives who pilloried his cooking skills, and the longtime senator soon deleted the post. He was also called out by late-night host Stephen Colbert.

Fast-forward a year and the NRSC, in their video maligning Schumer, urged voters to ‘join a real party, the Republican Party. We grill right.’

The NRSC was also selling related merchandise on its website, including beer koozies that read, ‘I grill like I vote. Right.’

The NRSC also used their email release to also highlight recent reports, confirmed by Fox News, that some Democratic strategists and consultants were spending millions of dollars to better communicate with male and working-class voters, whom the party has struggled to court in recent election cycles.

‘Shouldn’t take much to know how to grill a burger or correctly call a pick six, but apparently for Democrats, figuring out how to be a normal American takes at least $20 million — and even that won’t be enough,’ NRSC regional press secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement.

Republicans currently control the Senate with a 53-47 majority. The GOP aims to expand their majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Fox News reached out to the rival Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for a response to the new attack by the NRSC, but the DSCC had yet to take a bite at the time this report was posted.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to back off any moves to strike Iran as negotiations on its nuclear program remain ongoing. 

‘I’d like to be honest, yes, I did,’ he said in response to a reporter’s question on the issue. ‘It’s not a warning. I said I don’t think it’s appropriate.’

Trump said he is pushing for a diplomatic agreement to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. 

The remarks came after reports this week suggested that Netanyahu threatened to upend the talks by striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, as reports have also suggested there is growing friction between the two world leaders. 

Israel has received immense international and internal backlash over its aggressive military operations in the Gaza Strip in its pursuit to completely eradicate Hamas, which is backed by Iran, and it has threatened to take the fight to Iran’s doorstep.

But it is unclear why it was considering hitting Tehran’s nuclear facilities last week as the U.S. prepared to meet with Omani and Iranian officials to negotiate terms. 

In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Iranian foreign minister warned the U.N. Security Council on Thursday of ‘catastrophic consequences’ should Israel strike its nuclear infrastructure, and warned the ‘government of the United States would bear legal responsibility – having been complicit therein.’

Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday rejected a report by The New York Times which reported on Netanyahu’s alleged ambitions to hit Iran as ‘fake news.’

Though the president’s comments to reporters just hours later could suggest otherwise. 

The Trump administration described the most recent negotiations with Iran as positive and on Sunday the president told reporters, ‘We’ve had some very, very good talks with Iran.’

‘I don’t know if I’ll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good,’ Trump added.

Yonat Frilling contributed to this report.

An Obama-appointed federal judge has largely rejected the Trump administration’s request for the dismissal of a DOGE-related legal challenge, though she did dismiss President Donald Trump as a defendant, while otherwise allowing the wranglings to proceed.

‘Defendants seek to dismiss President Trump as a defendant because the court may not enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties,’ a memorandum opinion notes, adding, ‘The court agrees.’

The memorandum opinion and order are signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

‘Defendants’ motion to dismiss Count I against President Donald J. Trump, in his official capacity as President of the United States, is GRANTED. Defendants’ motion to dismiss Count I against all other defendants and Count II is DENIED,’ the order declares.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Justice Department spokesperson said, ‘This Department of Justice has vigorously defended President Trump’s ability to conduct official duties and will continue to do so whenever those actions are challenged in federal court.’

More than a dozen states lodged a legal challenge regarding Elon Musk’s work on Trump’s DOGE cost-cutting initiative earlier this year. 

‘This Court should restore constitutional order and, consistent with the Appointments Clause, enjoin Mr. Musk from issuing orders to any person in the Executive Branch outside of DOGE and otherwise engaging in the actions of an officer of the United States, and declare that his actions to date are ultra vires and of no legal effect,’ the complaint filed in February declared.

After heavily focusing on the effort, Musk later noted that he planned to reduce how much time he spends on it. 

Last week he declared in a tweet, ‘Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,’ noting that he needed to focus on various business endeavors.

‘The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,’ he noted on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. ‘I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.’

The White House is expected to send a federal spending cut proposal to Congress next week, two Republican sources told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

It is the latest move by Republican officials to make good on promises to slash government spending, a project spearheaded by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The proposal is called a ‘rescissions package,’ a vehicle for the president to block funds that were already allocated by Congress in its yearly appropriations process. Once transmitted to Capitol Hill, lawmakers have 45 days to take it up before it’s voided.

An Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official told Fox News Digital the package is expected to total roughly $9.4 billion.

It will primarily target federal funding to NPR, PBS and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the official said, confirming details first reported by Axios.

A third GOP source told Fox News Digital that House GOP leaders had asked the White House to wait until their chamber finished their consideration of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to send its spending-cut package.

The House passed the massive piece of tax-and-spending legislation last week after an all-night session of debate and procedural votes, sending it to the Senate for further consideration.

That bill, which is being advanced under the budget reconciliation process, primarily deals with mandatory government funding that Congress must change by amending the law itself.

A rescissions package targets discretionary government funding, which Congress sets the levels of every year in its annual appropriations process.

The White House referred Fox News Digital to OMB when reached for comment.

The package is expected to get to Congress just as Musk is beginning to step away from his role leading DOGE – but is apparently still keeping a close eye on governmental affairs.

The billionaire tech founder criticized Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill’ on ‘CBS News Sunday Morning,’ saying in a preview clip that he was ‘disappointed’ by it.

‘I think a bill can be big, or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both,’ Musk said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., vowed the House would do more to codify DOGE cuts in a statement after Musk’s message.

‘The House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings so we can deliver even more cuts to big government that President Trump wants and the American people demand. We will do that in two ways,’ Johnson wrote on X.

‘1. When the White House sends its rescissions package to the House, we will act quickly by passing legislation to codify the cuts. 2. The House will use the appropriations process to swiftly implement President Trump’s 2026 budget. In the meantime, we have been working around the clock as we prepared for those processes. The House made sure to build on DOGE’s success within the One Big Beautiful Bill.’

Musk’s commentary, meanwhile, divided House Republicans on Wednesday.

‘This is why Mr. Musk has no place in Congress. He wants to codify discretionary cuts. He didn’t find enough waste, fraud, and abuse to fund [the Small Business Administration], let alone reduce our debt,’ one House GOP lawmaker granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital. ‘This was a gimmick, he got used, he’s now upset.’

Meanwhile, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., who voted ‘present’ on the legislation last week, told Fox News Digital that he believed Musk was right.

‘I share Mr. Musk’s concerns about the short-term adverse effect on the federal deficit of the limited spending reductions in the BBB. Debt markets remain concerned about US total debt and annual deficits,’ Harris said.

The House is expected to begin working on fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations next week, though the rescission package deals with FY 2025 funding.

Additionally, the 45-day deadline for that is not the only marker on the horizon – identical FY 2026 spending bills must pass the House and Senate by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30 to avert a partial government shutdown.