Articles by Associated Press,Rubén Rosario

World

UN atomic agency demands Iran provide full information about its nuclear stockpile

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. atomic watchdog on Thursday demanded that Iran fully cooperate with the agency and provide “precise information” about its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium, as well as grant its inspectors access to Iranian nuclear sites. The development sets the stage for a likely further escalation between the U.N. nuclear agency and Iran, which has reacted strongly to similar moves by the watchdog in the past. Nineteen countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-member board of governors voted for the resolution at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the outcome of the closed-doors vote. Russia, China and Niger opposed it, while 12 countries abstained and one did not vote. The resolution — put forward by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States — says Iran must provide the IAEA with the latest information on its nuclear stockpile, “without delay.” A draft was seen by The Associated Press. After the strikes in June Since Israel and the United States struck Iran’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June, Iran has not given IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites that were affected by the strikes — even though Tehran is legally obliged to cooperate with the watchdog under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The agency also has been unable to verify the status of the stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium since the June bombing, according to a confidential IAEA report seen by the AP last week. According to the IAEA, Iran maintains a stockpile of 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. That stockpile could allow Iran to build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi warned in a recent interview with the AP. He added that it doesn’t mean that Iran has such a weapon. Such highly enriched nuclear material should normally be verified every month, according to the IAEA’s guidelines. Iran slams the decision Talking to reporters outside the IAEA boardroom, Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi denounced Thursday’s resolution and said that it was designed to “exert undue pressure on Iran” and propagate a “false and misleading narrative of the present situation.” He described the authors of the resolution as “deaf and visionless” and said that they maintain “an arrogant and self-assured posture” by presuming that Iran is “obliged to continue its routine cooperation with the agency even under bombardment.” Najafi said that Iran considers the current situation “far from normal,” given that safeguarded facilities in Iran that contain “dangerous nuclear material” have been attacked. Najafi said that Iran is “fully prepared for meaningful and constructive engagement” but at present, “the authors of resolutions have chosen a different course, under the mistaken belief that the pressure and threat will yield results.” Responding to questions from journalist, Najafi said Iran will announce its response at a later stage. Cutting ties Iran suspended all cooperation with the IAEA after the war with Israel. Grossi then reached an agreement with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Cairo in early September to resume inspections. But later that month, the U.N. reimposed crushing sanctions on Iran via the so-called snapback mechanism contained in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, drawing an angry response from Tehran and leading it to halt implementation of the Cairo agreement. The snapback mechanism reactivated six U.N. Security Council resolutions that address Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, reinstate economic sanctions against Iran and contain other restrictions, such as halting all uranium enrichment. Thursday’s resolution instructed Grossi to report on the implementation of the reinstated restrictions. It also requested that he ensure his reporting “includes information on the verification of Iran’s uranium stockpile, including the locations, quantities, chemical forms, and enrichment levels, and the inventories of centrifuges and related equipment.” Iran has long insisted its program is peaceful, but the IAEA and Western nations say Tehran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003. Thursday’s resolution demanded that Iran “acts strictly in accordance” with the so-called Additional Protocol that it signed in 2003 but never ratified. That protocol grants more powers and oversight to the IAEA, especially when it comes to conducting snap inspections at undeclared nuclear sites. Iran suspended its implementation of the Additional Protocol in 2021 in response to the United States’ withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted economic sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Science

NASA unveils close-up pictures of the comet popping by from another star

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA unveiled close-up pictures on Wednesday of the interstellar comet that’s making a quick one-and-done tour of the solar system. Discovered over the summer, the comet known as 3I/Atlas is only the third confirmed object to visit our corner of the cosmos from another star. It zipped harmlessly past Mars last month. Three NASA spacecraft on and near the red planet zoomed in on the comet as it passed just 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) away, revealing a fuzzy white blob. The European Space Agency’s two satellites around Mars also made observations. Other NASA spacecraft will remain on the lookout in the weeks ahead, including the Webb Space Telescope. At the same time, astronomers are aiming their ground telescopes at the approaching comet, which is about 190 million miles (307 million kilometers) from Earth. The Virtual Telescope Project’s Gianluca Masi zoomed in Wednesday from Italy. The comet is visible from Earth in the predawn sky by using binoculars or a telescope. “Everyone that is in control of a telescope wants to look at it because it’s a fascinating and rare opportunity,” said NASA’s acting astrophysics director, Shawn Domagal-Goldman. The closest the comet will come to Earth is 167 million miles (269 million kilometers) in mid-December. Then it will hightail it back into interstellar space, never to return. ESA’s Juice spacecraft, bound for Jupiter, has been training its cameras and scientific instruments on the comet all month, particularly after it made its closest pass to the sun. But scientists won’t get any of these observations back until February because Juice’s main antenna is serving as a heat shield while it’s near the sun, limiting the flow of data. Named for the telescope in Chile that first spotted it, the comet is believed to be anywhere from 1,444 feet (440 meters) across to 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) across. Observations indicate that the exceptionally fast-moving comet may have originated in a star system older than our own — “which gives me goose bumps to think about,” said NASA scientist Tom Statler. “That means that 3I/Atlas is not just a window into another solar system, it’s a window into the deep past and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our sun,” Statler told reporters. NASA officials were quick to dispel rumors that this friendly solar system visitor, as they called it, might be an alien ship of some sort. They said that because of the federal government shutdown, they weren’t able to respond to all the theories cropping up in recent weeks. The space agency is always on the hunt for life beyond Earth, “but 3I/Atlas is a comet,” said NASA’s associate administrator, Amit Kshatriya. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Entertainment

Frida Kahlo self-portrait poised to shatter auction records

NEW YORK (AP) — A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo of her asleep in a bed could make history Thursday when it goes on sale by Sotheby’s in New York. With an estimated price of $40 million to $60 million, “El sueño (La cama)” – in English, “The Dream (The Bed)” — may surpass the top price for a work by any female artist when it goes under the hammer. That record currently stands at $44.4 million, paid at Sotheby’s in 2014 for Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.” The highest price at auction for a Kahlo work is $34.9 million, paid in 2021 for “Diego and I,” depicting the artist and her husband, muralist Diego Rivera. Her paintings are reported to have sold privately for even more. The painting up for auction depicts Kahlo asleep in a wooden colonial-style bed, wrapped in a golden blanket embroidered with crawling vines and leaves. Above her, seemingly levitating atop the bedposts, lies a full-sized skeleton. In its catalog note, Sotheby’s said the painting “offers a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death.” Last exhibited publicly in the late 1990s, the painting is the star of a sale of more than 100 surrealist works by artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning. They are from a private collection whose owner has not been disclosed. Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at 18. She started to paint while bedridden, underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, then wore casts until her death in 1954 at age 47. “The suspended skeleton is often interpreted as a visualization of her anxiety about dying in her sleep, a fear all too plausible for an artist whose daily existence was shaped by chronic pain and past trauma,” the catalog notes. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.