Updated June 19, 2025 at 11:40 AM PDT

President Trump will make a decision on whether the U.S. will strike Iran “within two weeks,” the White House said Thursday.

“Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Trump said in a statement read by Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman.

The statement tamps down on speculation that the U.S. was poised to strike an Iranian nuclear facility as the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies.

According to a statement from Soroka Medical Center, the largest hospital in southern Israel, several people were being treated for minor injuries and cases of shock after the hospital was struck by Iranian missiles. The strike caused extensive damage to the hospital’s old surgical wing, which was preemptively evacuated several days ago, according to the statement. Videos shared online showed shattered hospital rooms and black smoke pouring from the facility.

Iran’s state media claimed that the missile was aimed at a military target nearby and denied intentionally hitting the hospital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retribution for the attack.

“This morning, Iran’s terrorist tyrants launched missiles at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and at a civilian population in the center of the country,” he said on social media. “We will exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the strike a “war crime,” and said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “cannot continue to exist.”

Other missiles hit a high-rise building and other residential buildings near Tel Aviv.

Katz said he and Netanyahu had instructed the Israeli military to intensify its strikes on strategic and government targets in Tehran, as part of a broader effort to undermine Iran’s regime.

The Israeli military says more than 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones have been launched at Israeli territory since the conflict began Friday.

Israel’s emergency services, Magen David Adom, said three people were in serious condition from Thursday’s blasts, including an elderly man and two women. An additional 42 civilians were wounded by shrapnel or blasts, and 18 more were hurt while running to shelters.

Israel’s strikes on Iran, meanwhile, have killed more than 200 people, according to Iran’s Health Ministry. But an independent group called the Human Rights Activists News Agency says it has counted 639 dead in Iran based on nongovernmental sources.

Israel also continued its strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it struck the Arak heavy water reactor. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the site — which it called the “Khondab (former Arak) heavy water research reactor” — was “not operational and contained no nuclear material,” so there was no risk of “radiological effects.”

It was the latest move targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure since Israel launched its surprise attack seven days ago.

In Washington on Thursday, Leavitt said the U.S. government believes “Iran has never been closer to a nuclear weapon.”

Trump has stopped short of saying whether the U.S. would join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear sites.

“We’re the only ones that have the capability to do it — but that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it,” he said Wednesday.

“I have ideas as to what to do. I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due because things change, especially with war,” he said. Earlier in the week he demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

Khamenei warned Wednesday that any U.S. military intervention would bring “irreversible consequences.” In a nationally broadcast address, the Iranian leader said the nation would not surrender, and would resist an “imposed war” just as it would resist an “imposed peace.”

Speaking Thursday, Netanyahu said the United States is “participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities with THAAD missile batteries that are in Israel, with Aegis ships that are on the shore of Israel, with their pilots that are fighting alongside our pilots to knock out drones.”

In an interview with NPR that day, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said the country would welcome interventions from “nations” — without naming the U.S. — and “anything that helps eradicate the Iranian nuclear program completely.”

As the fighting and rhetoric seemed to escalate, some countries are calling for restraint. Foreign ministers of Germany, France and the United Kingdom are scheduled to meet their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday.

The three European countries played a role in negotiations over a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. President Trump said the deal was too favorable to Iran and pulled the United States out during his first term.

“All sides must show restraint, refrain from taking steps which lead to further escalation in the region, and return to diplomacy,” the European countries said in a joint statement.

NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi, Daniel Estrin, and Itay Stern contributed to this report from Tel Aviv.

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The dispute over President Trump’s decision to federalize thousands of National Guard troops and deploy them to Los Angeles has moved to a San Francisco federal appeals court.

On Tuesday, it heard a request from the Trump Administration to extend the block on a lower court’s ruling that required Trump to return control of the Guard to California Governor Gavin Newsom.

The president sent more than 4,000 Guard members to the city to protect federal property and employees during tumultuous protests against immigration enforcement; Newsom says the deployment of the Guard and an additional 700 Marines was an overreaction and counter-productive.

But while the status of the military units in Los Angeles remains undecided, the immigration raids that touched off the protests in early June have intensified.

“Operations are getting a little bit more faster, and they’re in and out,” says Vlad Carrasco, with the immigrant advocacy group CHIRLA , where he’s part of a “rapid response” effort that rushes to the sites of reported raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Carrasco says he used to be able to get there in time to document ICE actions, but that changed in early June. Now when he gets to the scene, ICE is leaving or already gone.

“They know it’ll likely cause a mobilization by the local community if they do stay there a long time,” Carrasco says.

Advocacy groups have been sharing videos of ICE and other immigration enforcement officers being confronted by angry civilians. In some cases, National Guard soldiers will emerge from a van to establish a protective line between agents and members of the public, but observers say the more common defensive tactic is speed.

Combine that with the fact that agents are sometimes in plainclothes, masked, or wear insignia from other federal agencies, and the result is widespread fear, says Guillermo Torres of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice

“It makes you think of a totalitarian regime,” Torres says. “It makes you think of a country where people are kidnapped. Not only kidnapped, they disappear.”

The Trump administration lays the blame for the stepped-up raids in L.A. on the city itself, and its policies limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement. Administration officials such as “border czar” Tom Homan have repeatedly said “sanctuary” jurisdictions force federal agents to perform risky arrests in neighborhoods, because they’re not able to take custody of their targets from local jails, when local law enforcement arrests them on non-immigration charges.

“These operations have been much more difficult because of Los Angeles’ and California’s sanctuary policies,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week .

As to agents wearing masks, the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, says it’s a necessary response to what he describes as efforts to post the photos and names of agents online, which he says has led to threats to them and their families.

“Is anyone upset with the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled ‘terrorists’?” Lyons said, earlier this month .

But Oscar Zarate, also with CHIRLA, says the federal government’s deployment of personnel from multiple federal agencies to immigration enforcement in the city has created what he calls a “peak level of anxiety.” Immigration enforcement in L.A. has involved personnel from Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“I think because we’ve seen some of the agents in plain clothing with unmarked vehicles, it’s hard to decipher who they are and what they’re there for,” he says, adding that CHIRLA’s rapid response team is also receiving more mistaken reports from people who see local law enforcement activity and think it’s ICE.

“But I think that’s because [ICE is] kind of in disguise now, and people now can never really decipher who it is,” Zarate says.

ICE agents may soon be forced to identify themselves more clearly, because of a class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Southern California in 2020. It challenges immigration enforcement officers who allegedly pretend they’re regular police to lure people out of their homes.

A federal court has granted preliminary approval to a settlement which would, in part, require certain ICE personnel in the Los Angeles region to wear more prominent insignia.

“Requiring that the identifiers at least be equally visibly prominent [as the word “POLICE”] will help with some of the confusion that there is when ICE officers are out and about,” says Stephanie Padilla, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California.

But even if the court settlement is implemented later this year, its effect will be limited: It applies only to ICE, not the employees of the other federal law enforcement agencies that have been drafted into President Trump’s plan for mass deportation.

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Jon Henry served in Iraq during the first Gulf War, in a unit meant to counter chemical warfare attacks. Luckily for him the attacks never happened, but he still earned full veterans benefits, including a home loan backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Henry, who lives outside Kansas City. Mo., fell behind on his mortgage after losing his job managing a manufacturing plant last October. And because of a move last month by the VA, vets like him with delinquent loans have far worse options than most other American homeowners who never served.

“My social media posts have not been nice to the director of the VA and have not been nice to Trump,” Henry said. “And I voted for the guy!”

Henry was hoping to get help from the VA Servicing Purchase program, or VASP. In just the past year, according to the VA, it has helped more than 33,000 veterans and servicemembers who got behind on their loans by giving them a new, low-interest-rate mortgage.

But last month, out of fear of the potential cost, the VA abruptly did away with this safety net. It was the latest development in a VA mortgage saga that has whiplashed veterans between various enacted and cancelled programs and left thousands in fear of losing their homes . There are about 80,000 vets in the U.S. behind on their mortgages and heading toward foreclosure, according to data from ICE Mortgage Technology.

“It’s like, damn, you keep talking big about how you’re doing all this for the veterans, but you just turned your back on 80,000 vets that have VA loans,” Henry said.

Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are questioning this move by the VA. And NPR has heard from more than 50 veterans around the country in recent weeks who say they are upset.

“I’m constantly terrified every day that some giant moving truck or some people are just gonna show up on the front door and kick us out and start throwing all of our stuff out of the house,” said Mason Reale, a former Navy sonar technician in Lake Wales, Fla.

“It’s infuriating and it’s devastating,” Matthew Kelly, a retired Navy Special Operations diver in San Antonio, Texas, told NPR.

/ Navy Diver Matt Kelly in Salalah, Oman circa 2010 before doing an underwater sweep of a pier to look for improvised explosive devices.

The VA said in a statement to NPR that it “has a long-standing history of exploring options for Veterans to retain their homes.”

But the VASP program was created as a crucial last resort to keep veterans in their homes. Current mortgage rates of around 7 percent mean the other option for a VA loan, a loan modification, often sharply raises the monthly payment, making it unaffordable. So without VASP, many veterans will have to choose between selling the house, or getting foreclosed on.

That leaves vets in a worse position than most other homeowners. Mortgages backed by the government either through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA all have emergency options for delinquent borrowers that don’t raise their interest rate or monthly payment. But that’s not true anymore for veterans with loans backed by the VA, now that it’s closed enrollment into VASP.

When VA secretary Doug Collins appeared before a U.S. Senate committee in May, he heard about it — and mostly from Republican lawmakers.

” I was just with a press conference back home with reporters back home,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told Collins. “They asked me about the VA servicing purchase program or VASP.”

Cassidy cited NPR’s reporting and asked about the VA “leaving veterans in the lurch.”

Collins stood behind the VA’s decision to end VASP. “The VASP program is something that we do not need to be in,” he said.

Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images / Getty Images Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins testifies on Capitol Hill on May 15.

Collins and some other Republicans don’t like the way VASP works to help vets with these troubled loans — by buying them up and rolling the missed payments into a new loan with a low 2.5 percent interest rate. They worry that puts too much taxpayer money at risk since the VA holds the new loans on its own books.

At a recent house hearing, Collins said the program was going to cost “multiple billions of dollars” going forward and that “it’s a program we should have never gotten into.”

Collins said he’s hoping Congress passes legislation to replace VASP with what’s called a “partial claim” program. That takes the homeowners’ missed payments and moves that debt to the end of the homeowner’s loan term. Homeowners then start paying their mortgage again with their original interest rate and monthly payment.

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VA used to have a partial claim option for veterans but it was suddenly shut down in late 2022 during the Biden administration. That, too, left thousands of vets with far worse options than other homeowners. After NPR reported on that misstep, the VA halted foreclosures for an entire year while it rolled out VASP to rescue vets from losing their homes. Now Trump’s VA has scuttled that rescue program.

“We look forward to seeing how that legislation… the partial claim comes through,” Collins told senators at last month’s hearing.

But Democrats slammed Collins and the VA for basically ripping up the VASP safety net before anything has been set up to replace it. Congressman Chris Pappas of New Hampshire said vets facing foreclosure are left just hoping Congress will act in time.

“That’s not a good enough answer for my constituent,” Pappas told Collins at another recent hearing. “Veterans I talked to don’t agree with the abrupt ending to VASP,” Pappas said.

Sarah Silbiger/Pool / AFP via Getty Images / AFP via Getty Images Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) says he’s concerned about veterans facing imminent foreclosure after the abrupt cancellation of the VASP program.

At the Senate hearing, Arkansas Republican John Boozman gently made that same point to Collins, asking what the VA can do for veterans right now, and for the unknown number of months that it may take for Congress to pass, and VA to set up, a new program.

“How does the VA plan to help veterans at risk of foreclosure?” Boozman asked. “You know it’s one thing going forward, it’s another thing for those individuals that are caught up in that now, and it makes it really difficult.”

Asked by Pappas whether he would consider another foreclosure moratorium for vets, Collins replied: ” I’m not gonna commit to a program on the fly here in the middle of the hearing. I understand your concern.”

Margaret Reborchick / U.S. Navy / U.S. Navy Navy Diver Matt Kelly (left) in Scuba gear on a training mission with divers from Trinidad and Tobago in 2012.

The mortgage program has been a real concern for veterans like the former Navy diver Matt Kelly. Kelly suffered a brain injury during his service. He still gets headaches, and a few years ago they stopped him from working for a while.

“I was getting terrible migraines,” he said. ” I thought I needed time to deal with my medical stuff. ”

Kelly’s mortgage company allowed him to pause payments and told him he’d have an affordable way to catch up later. Indeed, VASP would have done that. But then the VA shut it down, leaving Kelly panicked about losing his home, and not knowing where he’d go with his wife and three young kids.

When NPR first spoke to Kelly in April, he said he’d been up most of the previous night, worrying what to do.

/ After his Navy service, Kelly worked in a search and rescue and underwater recovery unit for Grand Canyon National Park.

“I shake uncontrollably,” Kelly said. “My wife woke me up and said I was shaking. But right now I’m more pissed off and angry.”

After NPR asked the VA and Kelly’s mortgage company, Loancare, about his situation, the president of the company called NPR to say that, in Kelly’s case, the company actually made some mistakes that led to Kelly not getting enrolled in VASP in time. He said Loancare will eat the cost and give Kelly a new, low-interest-rate loan with the same terms as VASP.

Thousands of other vets who are still behind on their loans haven’t been so fortunate. Both Jon Henry and Mason Reale initially had trouble qualifying for VASP and now the program is closed so they won’t get the help. Kelly says he’s worried about other vets.

“It’s a responsibility of the VA. They announced this program, then they canceled the program, and they’re leaving veterans hanging,” Kelly said, adding, “their mission to protect veterans and care for veterans is not being fulfilled.”

Meanwhile, Congress is working on a replacement for the VA home loan safety net. One bill has passed in the House and two bills have been introduced in the Senate. But it’s not clear how long the process of standing up a new VA safety net might take, or how many veterans will lose their homes in the meantime.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Today is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when U.S. Army troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to inform some of the last enslaved Americans that they were free.

They were enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln had issued more than two years earlier, on Jan. 1, 1863.

Various events were planned across the country and some took the current politically and racially charged climate into account.

In Bend, Ore., planners of the annual Juneteenth festival said they took a different approach this year.

“Cautious. Cautious would probably be a good word,” Kenneth Adams, one of the planners, said of holding this year’s event at a public park.

He and other organizers were concerned about safety.

“Given the nationwide climate, we are heavily about making sure that people are safe,” Adams said.

They canceled the event. Another group revived it, smaller and indoors.

In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said state employees would no longer get Juneteenth as a paid holiday. That includes Ray Whiting, who has helped plan a Juneteenth parade and festival in Charleston for the past four years.

“I am disappointed in the governor’s decision,” Whiting said.

“So we moved the event to Friday. That way people won’t miss [it]. And all parties can celebrate.”

In Denver, Norman Harris has organized the city’s Juneteenth Music Festival since 2012. This year, it was just one day instead of two.

Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group / Denver Post via Getty Images / Denver Post via Getty Images Norman Harris III, organizer of Juneteenth Music Festival, poses for a portrait at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Five Point Denver, Colorado on Friday, June 4, 2021.

“We had a number of corporate partners who have been supporting us over the years who either pulled back their support or just were not there this year,” Harris said.

Still, with help from individual donors, he expected it to be “a cultural treasure chest where people are immersed in Black culture and celebrating Black excellence.”

In Nashville, organizers of the “Juneteenth615” festival say it’s their biggest year yet. Willie Sims, known as Big Fella, says skipping the celebration isn’t an option.

“So everybody, what if they cancel Juneteenth? I’m like, you can’t cancel Juneteenth. There’s been communities celebrating this since 1866. Like, when you actually go and say, we’re going to cancel it, I think you’re literally going to bring more of a light to it.”

Click the audio player to hear NPR staff read the text of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Good morning. You’re reading a special Juneteenth edition of the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Juneteenth and American cuisine

I have been digging online to gain a deeper understanding of the connection between food and Juneteenth. After reading countless articles about the meaning of the traditional foods and meals, nothing stood out to me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t feel connected to the traditional foods associated with Juneteenth. But every time I looked them up, I’d say to myself, “This is just what I eat all the time,” and “there has to be a deeper connection.”

Ben Abrams / NPR / NPR Before NPR’s Ben Abrams was a journalist, he worked as a chef in Atlanta.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like any of the food. Red velvet cake is one of my favorite desserts. I’ll crave a good barbecue or fish fry over pizza. And sweet potatoes are one of my favorite ingredients.

I think that it was my inner food snob talking. To say that “I love food” or to call myself a foodie would be an understatement. Before my days at NPR, I lived my first adult life as a chef in my hometown of Atlanta.

For years, it felt weird to say that my favorite cuisine was Southern or soul food. I didn’t get comfortable giving that answer until I was close to the end of my culinary career.

I was fighting my “impostor syndrome” while trying to find my confidence as a chef. I felt that I had to show the chefs I worked with that I belonged. I was worried about sharing that I was not as interested in cooking or eating food from more classic cuisines, like French or Italian. I’d question if I had earned the right to be called a chef because I wanted to cook food that a lot of people I knew could make.

But after I ended my culinary career and started my new life in journalism, I became comfortable with saying, “Yes, I’ve been a chef” and following that up with, “My favorite cuisine is soul/Southern food.” I now feel a sense of pride because, as a Black man, this cuisine is a part of who I am.

I think that’s why, at first, I had a hard time finding the deeper meaning behind the food associated with Juneteenth. The connection has been in front of me this whole time. As I dug deeper into the traditions that surround this holiday, I saw how they’ve been a part of me — and a part of Black and American culture.

Foods like sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas and collard greens, which are synonymous with holiday meals, were introduced to the United States by enslaved West Africans. These foods are also some of my favorites to cook and eat.

Cooking methods like barbecuing meats and deep-frying fish also date back to West Africa before the transatlantic slave trade. After Africans were brought to the U.S. through the slave trade, they passed their methods on to the next generation. This kept their traditions alive until their ancestors were emancipated in the 1860s.

Union soldiers came to Galveston, Texas, in 1865 and announced that slavery had been put to an end by the Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed by President Abraham Lincoln two years earlier. After that, people celebrated Juneteenth with barbecues throughout the late 19th century.

In the present, barbecues and fish fries are woven into the fabric of American culture. They’re also a part of Black culture.

When I reflect on Juneteenth, one of the many things I think about is how the food and cooking methods enslaved Africans brought with them played a huge part in the culture and cuisine that define America today. Without their contributions, soul food would not be what it is today, and many foods we’ve come to know and love would be missing from American cuisine.

Looking into these traditions has given me a greater understanding and appreciation for the food that has shaped me as a person and an American. I hope that sharing this perspective can help you find appreciation for the contributions that Black America and our traditions have made to America’s culture.

Juneteenth stories you may have missed

Nathan Howard/Getty Images / Getty Images North America / Getty Images North America An attendee adjusts his Juneteenth-themed hat during a neighborhood Juneteenth festival on June 17, 2023, in Washington, DC.

Juneteenth commemorates the fall of slavery in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation ordered the liberation of Black people held in the Confederacy. The only known remaining original copy of the order ending slavery in Texas will be on display again starting today at the Hall of State in Dallas, part of an interactive exhibit put on by the Dallas Historical Society.

Texas lawmakers have allocated $10 million for the development of the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth’s Historic Southside. The museum started celebrations early with its “Declarations of Freedom” exhibit, featuring photos from Juneteenth celebrations in the ’70s and ’80s along with contemporary works from North Texas artists.

Omaha, Neb., has a long history of celebrating Juneteenth, and this year the energy will be heightened even more. Today marks the city’s first time observing the holiday with its first Black mayor, Democrat John Ewing Jr., who ousted the 12-year Republican incumbent last month.

Across the U.S., some organizers of Juneteenth celebrations are facing challenges in securing funding and finding suitable event spaces. Kenneth Adams, an organizer in Bend, Ore., shared that he and other planners are worried about ensuring security at their event in a public park. Listen to Adams and others as they discuss the difficulties of hosting Juneteenth events, along with Morning Edition’s annual reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Isabel Wilkerson reflects on this year’s Juneteenth celebrations and the complexities of the Black experience in America. Wilkerson is the author of Caste, a book that argues that it was not racism that Black people were fleeing when they left the Jim Crow South, but rather a caste system.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

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