NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-14-2025 1AM EDT

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

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On the Planet Money Podcast, the economic world we've been living in for decades was built on some basic assumptions. But the people who built that world are long gone. And right now, those assumptions are kind of up in the air. Like the dollar as the reserve currency. Is that era over? If so, what could replace it? And what does that mean for the rest of us? Listen to the Planet Money Podcast from NPR wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says plans for Israel's attack on Iran were in the works for months.

Israel launched a major airstrike campaign in Iran on Friday, striking military targets and nuclear facilities and killing top Iranian security chiefs. Iran said the strikes were unprovoked and a declaration of war. Empire's Hadil Al-Shalchi reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he gave the directive for the Israeli military to attack Iran shortly after Israel killed the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September in South Beirut. In a video statement, Netanyahu said that the attack on Iran was supposed to happen

in April, but it was postponed. Netanyahu has long said that war is the only way to eliminate Iran's threat of developing a nuclear weapon. Hadeel Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Russia is condemning Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear enrichment program as a violation of the United Nations Charter. The Kremlin's support for Tehran comes amid warming ties between the countries. NPR's Charles Maines reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was concerned about the dramatic escalation in tensions, but left it to Russia's foreign ministry to condemn Israel's military actions outright. In a statement, the ministry called Israel's quote, unprovoked military strikes on Iran's government, cities and nuclear energy infrastructure unacceptable. Ties between Moscow and Tehran have improved significantly amid the war in Ukraine, with the Kremlin turning to Iran for weapons and even signing a strategic partnership agreement. The Kremlin has also sought to parlay those closer relations in its own dealings with

the U.S., offering to help the Trump administration mediate limits to Iran's potential nuclear arms program. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow. More than 200 Marines are in Los Angeles this evening where they've been tasked with guarding a federal building and government employees after a week of protests against immigration arrests in that city. The Marines will take over that protection duty from the estimated 2,000 California National

Guard troops who will now assist federal agents, basically provide protection for them in their mission to track down undocumented migrants. So far there have been some two dozen missions. The Guard has the authority to detain migrants and protesters but have no arrest powers. That's MPR's Tom Bowman. Communities across the country meanwhile are preparing for a nationwide protest movement on Saturday called No Kings. Tens of thousands of people are expected to protest against policies of the Trump administration.

Investigators in India have recovered the digital flight data recorder, which is known as the black box, from the Air India flight that crashed this week. 241 people on board the plane were killed in that accident, along with five other people who were on the ground at the time. Officials say finding the black box is a major step forward in their investigation into the cause of the crash. You're listening to NPR News. President Trump's trade war continues to be a drag on cargo traffic at the Port of Los

Angeles. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, that means less work for dock workers, truck drivers, and warehouse workers. Last month was the slowest in more than two years at the Port of Los Angeles, a key point of entry for imports from China. Much of that Asian shipping traffic came to a standstill when President Trump imposed his triple-digit tariffs. The port's executive director Gene Seroka says cargo volumes have since rebounded to more normal

levels after tariffs on Chinese goods were cut, at least temporarily, to 30 percent. And we're happy with that because that means more dock workers and truckers will be out on the job hauling this cargo. But I don't see the surge that some observers had called for." Soroka says that could mean less selection and higher prices during the usually busy back-to-school and Halloween shopping seasons. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. A federal judge Friday blocked President Trump's executive order on elections. That order sought to compel officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections and to accept

mail-in ballots only if received by Election Day. Attorneys General from California and New York had filed a suit calling the executive order overreach. Stocks sank on Friday as worries grew that fighting in the Mideast could damage the flow of oil around the world. The S&P 500 lost enough to wipe out what had been a modest gain on the week while the Dow closed down 1.79%. Oil prices, meanwhile, jumped about 7% because Iran is one of the world's major producers of oil. Treasury yields also rose.

I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.