mondAY All about bunker buster 23 bombs june, 2025 ‘Bunker buster’ is a broad term to describe bombs that penetrate deep below the surface before exploding epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard The roughly 13,600 kilogram precision-guided bomb can attack deeply buried and hardened bunkers and tunnels israel offensive 3 hostages’ bodies found: Tel Aviv In this case, it refers to the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb that US used to bomb Iran’s three key nuclear sites The Israel military said Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of three hostages in Gaza more than 20 months after they were abducted by Hamas militants. A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 l New Delhi Iran can have reactors, but can’t enrich uranium: Rubio No reports of radiation from Iran, says IAEA chief 80 injured in Israel as Iran fires volley of missiles Iran will be allowed to operate nuclear power plants but not enrich its own fuel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said the Iranian regulatory authorities have reported no increase in off-site radiation levels l J8.00 l PAGES 12 Iran fired a barrage of missiles against Israel, targeting Ben Gurion Airport, and other key targets. According to Israeli media, over 80 were injured TRUMPFIRE ON IRAN Nuclear SITES U.S. bombs Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan ‘obliterated’ them, claims Trump Iran says ‘a very big red line’ crossed, warns of ‘dangerous consequences’ world leaders call for calm A g e n c i e s @ Dubai/Washington/Jerusalem AFter waiting on the sidelines for days, the US on Sunday joined Israel’s war against Iran, bombing three of the country’s major nuclear sites using the rarely deployed GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs and the powerful Tomahawk cruise missiles. “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace,” US President Donald Trump said after the strikes. He said Tehran must now make peace or brace for more attacks. The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran confirmed that attacks took place on the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities as well as the Isfahan nuclear site. Both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around the sites. Iran reacted sharply to the attack, saying the US crossed ‘a very big red line’ and warned that there will be ‘dangerous consequences’ and ‘far-reaching implications’. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hit out at the US, saying the attack revealed it was the “main factor behind” Israel’s military campaign in the Islamic republic. Vowing to defend itself at all costs, Iran fired another volley of missiles at Israel, injuring scores of people and damaging buildings. “There is no red line that they have not crossed. And the last one, and the most dangerous one, happened only last night. They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities,” said Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi. The foreign minister said he would soon fly to Moscow to hold discussions with Russia. “We enjoy a strategic partnership and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions,” he said, referring to Russia. If US claims that the nuclear sites have been damaged beyond repair are confirmed, it could mark the end of for Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ambitious plan to transform the Islamic Republic into a greater regional power that holds enriched nuclear material a step away from weapons-grade. The developments have caused fears of the conflict intensifying and spreading wider. While the Trump administration said it still wanted to resume diplomatic talks with Iran, Tehran said the time for diplomacy had passed and that it would now do the needful to defend itself. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration does not seek a regime change in Iran. He said the strikes ordered by Trump overnight had “devastated” Iran’s nuclear programme and urged Iranian leaders to seek peace to avoid further attacks. He also sought to clarify that the strikes did not target Iranian troops or civilians. Global leaders responded to the developments with shock and calls for restraint. The United Nations Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday. Egypt warned of ‘grave repercussions’ for the region. Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s Middle East-based Fifth Fleet, called on Iran and the US to P7 & 9 ‘quickly resume talks.’  key sites in iran hit by the U.S. Natanz Israeli attacks had already damaged the country’s largest uranium enrichment centre Iran Fordo Bunkerbuster bombs were dropped on Iran’s most critical nuclear site Why only B2 bombers used to carry GBU-57? The bomb has a much thicker steel case and contains a smaller amount of explosives than similarly sized general-purpose bombs. The heavy casings allow the munition to stay intact as it punches through soil, rock or concrete before detonating. American strikes Israeli strikes since June 13 Isfahan Near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel is reportedly stored here Amid tensions, buzz on Strait of Hormuz closure Weight 13,608 kg Length 20 feet Agencies Amid the escalating tensions with Israel and the US, Iran’s parliament has approved the plan to close the Strait of Hormuz—the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world’s most strategically impor tant choke points—Iran’s Press TV reported on Sunday . The proposal will now go to the Supreme National Security Council, headed by a nominee of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will take the final call, it added. According to estimates, This aggression showed that America around 20% of the world’s oil is the main factor and gas moves through the behind the Zionist Strait of Hormuz. If Iran deregime’s hostile cides to close the strait, it could actions against Iran send global oil prices skyrocketing. Iran’s reported move folMasoud Pezeshkian, lows US strikes on three IraniIranian president an military sites on Sunday . Choking the strait­ which handles around 20 — million barrels of crude oil per day—could cripple oil exports from key Gulf producers including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, and Kuwait. While there are some alternate pipelines, they can only handle a small share. j aya n t h j a c o b @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday voicing concern , over the escalating IranIsrael conflict, particularly as New Delhi is wary about rising tensions threatening regional stability . The 45-minute call, initiated by President Pe zeshkian following US strikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites, included a detailed briefing on the evolving situation. “India reiterates its call for A truck carries away the wreckage of AI 171 that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 with 232 passengers and 10 crew onboard | pti m u k e s h r a n j a n @ New Delhi WITH an eye on ensuring greater accuracy in electoral rolls in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year, the Election Commission on Sunday announced that it was contemplating an intensive house-to-house verification during the revision of the voter list in the state. Official sources said the move is aimed at freeing the electoral rolls of errors, if any . Officials pointed out that concerns have been raised by various civil society organisations, political parties and others persistently over the inclusion or deletion of names in the electoral rolls. Several parties, including the Congress, have accused the poll authority of fudging data to help the BJP . A source said, “The ECI has repeatedly emphasized that it is committed to ensuring that only genuine and eligible citizens are enrolled in the electoral rolls.” express read Stealth frigate set to be commissioned in Russia Birmingham-Delhi flight gets midair bomb threat The Navy is set to commission its latest stealth frigate at Russia’s Kaliningrad on July 1. Named ‘Tamal’, it is eighth in the series of Krivak class frigates inducted from Russia over past 20 years. With this, Navy will be operating 10 ships with similar capabilities. A Boeing 787-8 from Birmingham to Delhi made an emergency landing at Riyadh on Sunday following a bomb threat midair. Exhaustive checks of the aircraft after deboarding all passengers at King Khalid International Airport revealed it to be a hoax. ‘Prices may crash further’ INDIAN basmati exporters, still reeling from the shock of a 26% tariff imposed by the US government—which is currently on hold—are facing double trouble due to the outbreak of the Israel-Iran war. This conflict has created uncertainty in exports, resulting in stuck consignments, delayed payments, and falling prices. Notably, 15% of India’s total basmati exports are destined for Iran, making it the secondlargest importer after Saudi Arabia. This surplus of basmati could potentially flood the domestic market. The crisis is likely to affect Punjab, the country’s leading producer of basmati rice, with a total production share of 40%, followed by Haryana and other states. In the 2023-24 fiscal, a total of 59.42 LMT of basmati rice was exported from the country: 7 If the situation continues with the arrival of a new crop amidst an already saturated market, prices will crash further, RS Sachdeva, former chairperson of the Punjab chapter of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. LMT to Iran, 11 LMT to Saudi Arabia, 8 LMT to Iraq, 3 LMT to Yaman and 3 LMT to the US and remaining to other countries. Thus, Iran is the secondhighest importer of Basmati from India after Saudi Arabia. Ranjit Singh Jossan, vicepresident of the Basmati Rice Miller and Exporter Association, said, “We export around one million tons of basmati to Iran, which is approximately 15 to 16% of India’s total global exports. Due to the present crises, now around `3,000 crore worth of export orders are hanging in the balance,” he said. “We are unable to contact the importers in Iran as they are mainly based in the country’s capital city Tehran. There is no , clarity on the payments to our exporters. The Iranian currency might further devalue against the US dollar, making the Indian exporters bear the financial losses,” he said. A far mer Sanampreet Mahrok of Fazilka district said that they were hoping to get good prices, but under the present circumstances, the rates could fall by Rs 500 per quintal for both PUSA 1509, 1121, and other variants. beyond ai IISc trying to teach machines to understand voice amid noise R i s h i ta K h a n n a @Bengaluru At a lab at the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Electrical Engineering department, Dr Sriram Ganapathy is trying to teach machines what most humans do easily — understand speech amid real-world noise. With his Learning and Extraction of Acoustic Patter ns (LEAP) lab, he is focusing on decoding how humans speak, listen and interpret each other, specifically in noisy environments — where current artificial intelligence (AI) models fail. His research has much potential to develop smarter hearing aids in future. By combining machine learning with neuroscience, the lab is not only training systems to identify speech and emotion, but also uncovering how the brain processes sound. Over the past nine years, the LEAP lab has worked on everything from developing speech recognition systems that function in noisy settings, to studying how the brain distinguishes ‘two speakers’ in a conversation. Their research has attracted collaborations with companies like Samsung, Sony and Google. More recently the team at LEAP , lab has been trying to use large language models (LLMs) — the same kind used in ChatGPT — to detect emotions in speech, a task that even the best AI tools still find it difficult. The lab ran experiments to study how humans can tell when a new person starts talking. In a test, people had to press a button when they noticed a change in speaker. Interestingly, those who didn’t understand the language were quicker at identifying the change. “If the language is unknown, the brain pays more attention to the voice and tone, not the meaning,” explained Ganapathy, stating that this could help design How tough a target is Fordo nuke site Fordo is Iran’s second nuclear enrichment facility after Natanz. In addition to being 80 metres underneath, it is protected by Iranian and Russian missiles Tehran dials Delhi, Modi calls for de-escalation H A RPREE T B A J W A @ Chandigarh solemn departure It’s believed to be able to penetrate about 61 metres below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast. graphic: Sourav roy After US tariff, Israel-Iran war shadow on basmati rice export House-to-house voter scrutiny on EC plan for Bihar B-2 Spirit stealth bomber: It can carry a payload of 18,000 kg but the US Air Force has tested a total weight of 27,200 kg smarter hearing aids. A big part of Ganapathy’s work is in “representation learning”, where machines are trained to pick up patterns from audio. These patterns help machines identify different voices, accents and emotions — even when the speech is not very clear. Apart from better hearing aids, this research can help build virtual assistants that sound more human. The lab is also working on Explainable AI, which analyses how trustworthy and understandable AI decisions are. immediate de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward and for early restoration of regional peace, security and stability,” Modi said after the call. Pezeshkian described India as a friend and partner. He expressed appreciation for India’s consistent stance advocating dialogue and diplomacy. “India’s vo i c e a n d r o l e i s important in restoring regional peace,” Pezeshkian told Modi , acknowledging New Delhi’s call for restraint as tensions between Iran, Israel, and the United States spiral. Now, city civic bodies, not cops, to grant licence for businesses A n u p V e r m a @ New Delhi The Delhi government has announced a major reform, transferring the responsibility for issuing licences for seven key business categories from Delhi Police to local civic bodies. These include hotels, motels, swimming pools, restaurants (eating houses), guest houses, video game parlours, discotheques, auditoriums and amusement parks. On Sunday, Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena issued an order relieving Delhi Police of issuing licences and No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for these sectors. The powers will now rest with local authorities such as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council or Delhi Cantonment Board. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta welcomed the move, calling it a step toward Centre’s Maximum Governance-Minimum Government’ and Ease of Doing Business policy She said the decision . would reduce bureaucratic delays, allow police to focus on law and order and strengthen coordination among departments. “We want to make Delhi not only the political capital of India but also a model of good governance. That is the mission of our double-engine government,” Gupta said. She called the move timely and practical, and a boost for Delhi’s development. T he Chief Minister assured that the licensing process will now be streamlined, transparent and digitised.