Reuters World News - Air India crash, US Middle East evacuations, Islamic State and ICE raids

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

A London-bound Air India plane with more than 200 on board has crashed in Ahmedabad. The U.S. is pulling personnel out of the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran. Middle Eastern leaders and Western allies warn that Islamic State could exploit the fall of the Assad regime to stage a comeback in Syria and Iraq. An immigration raid at a meat production plant in Omaha fuels fears among undocumented workers. And the Marines will join the National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles within two days, with the authority to detain civilians.  Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Marines are due to deploy on the streets of L.A. within two days, as immigration raids intensify, targeting a meat plant in Nebraska. And the US is set to pull personnel from the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran, as Islamic State eyes a comeback in the region. It's Thursday, June 12th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand.

To some breaking news, an Air India plane has crashed on takeoff at the airport in Ahmedabad. That's according to local news channels. Footage showed thick black smoke near the airport and people being moved on stretches and taken away in ambulances. For the very latest, head to our live page on Reuters.com and the Reuters app. Some 700 Marines will join National Guard troops on the streets of L.A. in the next two days,

according to officials. They can detain people, although they cannot make arrests. It's now been six days of mostly peaceful protests in L.A., with downtown remaining under a curfew. The demonstrations have spread to other cities, and hundreds more demonstrations nationwide are planned for Saturday, as the immigration raids which sparked the protests continue. We'll have the latest on the raids a little later in the podcast. The U.S. will begin evacuating some staff from the Middle East due to heightened security risks. That's according to U.S. and Iraqi sources.

That decision coming as U.S. intelligence indicates Israel is considering a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Well, they are being moved out because it could be a deal. dangerous place and we'll see what happens. President Trump confirming the reports without giving further details. When asked whether anything can be done to dial the temperature down in the region, Trump responded that they can't have a nuclear weapon, referring to Iran. Pentagon reporter Idris Ali is following developments. We are in a situation where Iran and the United States have been in talks about coming to a sort of nuclear deal.

And so there's been a tense standoff for the past few weeks and months over these negotiations. A very important factor in all of this is Israel, which, you know, for years has talked about how it will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon or a nuclear program. And so as we are seeing the development of talks,

not coming to an agreement, there has been a sense, you know, will Israel finally take a military strike on Iran and the actions we've seen today by the Trump administration and removing people, I think, sort of speaks to those tensions in the region. Idris, should we expect to see more evacuations or more precautions taken? The actions taken today were pretty significant in themselves. Iraq has, you know, one of the largest U.S. military diplomatic outpost in the region.

Again, I should point out that over the past few years, several years, Iran-backed militia in Iraq and Syria have attacked U.S. embassy outposts, U.S. diplomatic facilities, U.S. bases in both Iraq and Syria. I think when you sort of look at the region and you sort of think, okay, where could the highest threat be to personnel? It probably would be Iraq because in the past, they have had some pretty sophisticated capabilities to hit U.S. bases and diplomatic facilities in the country. But I think we are going to be closely watching to see if other embassies like those in Lebanon or Bahrain or Kuwait or UE follow suit. So far, we haven't heard anything,

but I think it's something we're going to be watching closely in the next 24 to 72 hours. In another security threat facing the Middle East, Islamic State appears to be rebooting. The extremist group, which once imposed a reign of terror over millions, is activating sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq. And Trump is asking Syria's new leadership to help.

Timor Azari is in Beirut. Timor, what exactly is happening in Syria and Iraq? It's important to note that so far we have not seen major attacks. In fact, we have seen major attacks being foiled. And that is thanks to some extent intel cooperation with the United States and also with other countries in the region. It's also due to the fact that Hayat Hasham, the group that now rules Syria, has for years been fighting ISIS

and they have gotten very good at it. But that doesn't mean that they're not concerned. the Interior Minister, who was a former member of Hatred Hashem, said that ISIS is their number one challenge today. One issue that's very concerning to Western officials is they have tracked for the first time in many years fighting profile men heading to Syria. Now, it's very hard to determine what the purpose is, but it's enough of an issue that several European intelligence agencies have tracked this. And the concern there, of course, is that if people are heading to Syria to join armed groups there, they could gain training, they could recruit others, and, eventually,

that could blow back on European cities, as was the case when ISIS was at its peak with several high-profile attacks. Why now? Now, there's a few reasons for this. The first is the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. As the regime fell, there was a lot of area in the country that basically had no security control whatsoever. The regime actually collapsed before rebels could take over a lot of these posts. And in sort of the chaos of that, some officials say that ISIS was able to take weaponry. They were also able to move around in ways that they hadn't been able to before. Then we actually see a growing discontent in Islamic State with Syria's new leadership. They have called on foreign fighters who joined the rebel group to leave the Syrian government forces and join their

ranks. So they're trying to play on the moderate turn of Syria's new leader to, say these guys are un-Islamic come to us. The IAEA says Iran is in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. That declaration coming for the first time in almost 20 years. The UN's nuclear watchdog saying Tehran has failed to fulfill its obligations around undeclared nuclear materials and activities. That's according to diplomats who were at the closed-door meeting. Iran has announced countermeasures to the IAEA's resolution,

according to State TV, including opening a new enrichment site and upgrading centrifuges at a nuclear facility. We made a great deal with China. We're very happy with it. President Trump talking up his trade truce with China, but markets are less impressed. Kamal Krimman says more. The framework agreed with Beijing removes Chinese export restrictions on rare earth's minerals

and allows Chinese students access to US universities. But the lack of more than, detail has investors unnerved. U.S. export restrictions on high-end AI chips are still in place. And Trump is back to his unilateral style of policymaking, saying that he would send out letters in one to two weeks, outlining trade terms to dozens of other countries. So global stocks and the dollar are down, and safe haven assets like gold and treasuries are up. Back to the immigration raids which have sparked now nationwide protests. Undocumented migrants working at a meat packing plant in Omaha, Nebraska, the latest detainees, in the biggest work site enforcement

operation yet, according to Homeland Security. Ted Heson covers immigration. Well, we know there is just this drive right now from the White House to have higher numbers of people arrested. They're saying 3,000 people a day. And for some perspective, that's 10 times the daily average under former President Biden last year. So it would be a huge increase if they reach those numbers. One way that they could get that is to focus on workplaces, as opposed to maybe going after individuals, because you may go in and in one operation, be able to arrest dozens of people or even hundreds of people and just strengthen those efforts and bring in more arrests. Are we seeing a common thread in the types of workplaces that are

or could be targeted? It's well known that certain industries are more likely to hire people, people in the country illegally, the agricultural industry, also meatpacking. So there are places where potentially if immigration officers wanted to look for people who may be deportable, they could look more closely at those places. And we haven't seen statistics that underscore that employers themselves are being targeted or being punished for hiring people who are illegally. So I think that in the coming months, or maybe in this first year of Trump's administration, we'll start to get a better sense of how serious they are about. about cracking down on the people that are actually hiring the workers without legal status.

How are these industries responding? I mean, you certainly hear the agricultural industry foremost has been out in front saying that they need this workforce. They have a high percentage of workers. They concede who don't have legal status in the country. And they don't believe Americans would do those jobs. There's also a fear factor where people may be afraid to go to their jobs if they don't have legal status in the U.S. because they may feel that they may potentially be a target. And for today's recommended read, a look back at the life of Brian Wilson, who's died aged 82.

The Beach Boys co-founder created some of Rock's most enduring songs in a career that was marked by a decades-long battle with drug abuse and mental health issues. You can read more about him by following the link in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player and we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.