NPR News Now - NPR News: 06-15-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Israeli missiles hit dozens of targets in Tehran as NPR's Jackie Northam reports key infrastructure and nuclear sites have been hit. Israeli military officials say two Iranian fuel depots were hit overnight, as was the headquarters of Iran's Ministry of Defense and the country's nuclear program. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says it will pursue a more forceful and expansive response if the attacks continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of missile strikes that Iran, quote,

cannot even imagine. President Trump on Saturday said he'd like to see the war between Israel and Iran end. Jackie Northam, NPR News. The continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East is expected to be a major focus at the G7 summit that convenes in the Canadian Rockies this coming week. Also a big concern, U.S. tariff policies. No final joint summit statement is expected. President Trump leaves for the summit later this afternoon.

A suspect is still on the loose after shooting in Minnesota yesterday, killed one state lawmaker and her husband and left another and his wife wounded. As NPR's Meg Anderson reports, police identified that man as 57-year-old Vance Belter and are looking into possible motives. Early Saturday morning, Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home by a man impersonating a police officer. In another attack, state Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot in their home. They survived. State police said they found a hit list of individuals inside the suspect's car. That

list included his victims and other prominent Democrats. Governor Tim Walz has called it a targeted political attack. That would make it part of a larger trend of rising political violence in the country. In a study last year, researchers found nearly half of the state lawmakers they surveyed had experienced threats or attacks. Meg Anderson, NPR News. President Trump presided over a controversial military parade in Washington yesterday while people in scores of cities protested the event as politicizing the armed forces. NPR's Frank Langford reports from Annapolis, Maryland. The No Kings rally in Maryland's capital featured a George

Washington reenactor. He wore white wig and gave the speech Washington delivered there when he gave up his military command in 1783. I hereby offer my commission and leave all the employments of public life. The protesters' point was that Washington voluntarily gave up military power while they say Trump is attempting to accrue more by holding a parade they like into those in autocratic countries like China and Russia. Trump brushed off the criticism suggesting that military parades are routine in other countries, which is not true. This parade was the first of its kind in the U.S. since 1991.

Frank Langford, NPR News, Annapolis, Maryland. This is NPR. American bullfrogs have expanded well past their native range in the eastern part of the country and caused real trouble for local species. As NPR's Ari Daniel reports, researchers now suggest a possible, though intensive, countermeasure. The American bullfrog will eat whatever fits inside its giant froggy mouth, including California's northwestern pond turtle. We sometimes refer to them as little cookies because they're so cute. Sydney Woodruff, a PhD candidate at UC Davis, says in much of Yosemite National Park, the turtles have disappeared, except for a couple water bodies where there are still adults.

Woodruff and her colleagues removed some 16,000 bullfrogs from these locations. The result? Our first couple of small pond turtle hatchlings and juveniles swimming out in the environment. So once the bullfrogs were removed, younger turtles could survive, suggesting targeted bullfrog eradication could help restore certain ecosystems. R.A. Daniel, NPR News. Well, happy Father's Day to all dads, but especially Goliath in Miami, a 517-pound Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami.

Today also happens to be Goliath's birthday, his 135th, but what makes this so special is the fact that this is the first actual Father's Day for the endangered reptile. Officials at the zoo say one egg out of a clutch of eight laid back in January successfully hatched at the beginning of this month. Goliath's records show he himself hatched on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos between 1885 and 1890. I'm Louise Givone, NPR News.