The Headlines - Israel Attacks Iran, and India Plane Crash Survivor Speaks

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Plus, Friday’s news quiz. On Today’s Episode: Israeli Strikes Wipe Out Iran’s Top Military Chain of Command, by Farnaz Fassihi, Qasim Nauman, Aaron Boxerman, Patrick Kingsley and Ronen BergmanResidents of Tehran Awake to Devastation, by Farnaz FassihiTrump’s Use of National Guard in Limbo After Court Rulings, by Charlie Savage, Kellen Browning and Laurel RosenhallSenator Is Forcibly Removed and Handcuffed After Interrupting Noem, by Shawn Hubler, Jennifer Medina and Jill CowanGrieving Relatives of India Air Crash Victims Wait for Bodies to Be Identified, by Suhasini Raj, Mujib Mashal and Pragati K.B.‘I Don’t Know How I Am Alive,’ Air India Crash Survivor Tells Family, by Jacob JudahEarly Humans Settled in Cities. Bedbugs Followed Them, by Andrew JacobsTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Michael Simon Johnson. Today's Friday, June 13th. Here's what we're covering. Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. Israel launched a stunning series of strikes against Iran last night with 200 Israeli-born to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. Israel launched a stunning series of strikes against Iran last night, with 200 Israeli

warplanes dropping hundreds of bombs across the country and striking over a hundred targets. Residents of Iran's capital, Tehran, weathered a night of terror and shock, reeling from explosions across the city as the entire Middle East moves closer toward a full-blown regional war. Among Israel's targets were some of Iran's key nuclear sites, including its main enrichment facility as well as a research center. At least two prominent nuclear scientists have been killed. Israel also struck a huge blow to Iran's military chain of command.

Iran has confirmed that its three highest ranking generals have been killed. For years, Iran has openly called for Israel's destruction, and Israel has argued that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be an existential threat. Israel is describing this attack as preemptive, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. I want to assure the civilized world, we will not let the world's most dangerous regime get the world's most dangerous weapons. Netanyahu is hailing the attack as a success,

but warned to the Israeli public that they should prepare for the fighting to go on for days. A senior official from the Israel Defense Forces told Israeli television, quote, we are at war. Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, said on Iranian state television that Israel should, quote, We are at war. Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, said on Iranian state television that Israel should, quote, anticipate a harsh punishment. Iran later fired about 100 drones at Israel.

I think it's very hard to know what the next couple of days are going to bring. Aaron Boxerman is in Israel covering the attack. In Israel, people are anxiously awaiting Iranian retaliation, which would likely take the form of volleys of hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones and other munitions. In Iran, people are similarly, fearfully waiting what might come next, how far this fighting will go. And the truth is that we don't really have a template for this because we've never really been here before. The truth is that we don't really have a template for this because we've never really been here before. Israel and Iran have fought a decades-long shadow war, which was characterized by covert assassinations and subterfuge and sabotage.

But we're in a totally different place right now. American officials have said that the U.S. was not involved in the strikes. But President Trump told Fox News he did know about Israel's plans to target top Iranian leaders. Trump has been trying to negotiate with Iran to get the country to freeze its nuclear program. Israel's strikes have torpedoed those plans, with Iran saying it won't participate in talks with the U.S. until further notice. Trump posted this morning on social media pushing Iran to make a deal with the US,

writing, quote, There is still time to make this slaughter with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal come to an end. He added, quote, Just do it before it's too late. In California, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from mobilizing National Guard troops in Los Angeles. In a ruling Thursday night, the judge cut off the president's control of the troops, calling their deployment a, quote, dangerous precedent that was illegal and unconstitutional. Trump relied on a rarely used law to mobilize 4,000 National Guard troops. That law requires the president to go through the governor to do so. But the administration ignored that and went around Governor Gavin Newsom.

It was the latest judicial rebuke over Trump's use of emergency powers. And the ruling returned authority of California National Guard troops back to Newsom. The National Guard will be redeployed to what they were doing before Donald Trump commandeered them. The National Guard will go back to border security, working on counter drug enforcement and fentanyl enforcement. The order was supposed to take effect today, but the administration quickly filed an appeal, and late last night, an appeals court blocked the order from going into effect until it

can review the case. Meanwhile. Sir, sir, hands up, hands up. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary. At a news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed, shoved to the ground, and handcuffed by federal agents, as he interrupted a briefing by Secretary of Homeland Security Christine Noem.

Hands on your back. He's getting my hands going. Put him behind my back. All right, all right, all right. Cool. He interrupted a briefing by Secretary of Homeland Security, Christine Noem. Padilla had attended the press conference because he said he could not get answers from the administration on its immigration crackdown. And at one point, he interrupted Noem, calling out a question about mugshots that were on display. That's when agents grabbed him, pushed him out of the room, and forced him to his knees. Padilla appeared stunned and repeated that he was a U.S. senator. He was uncuffed only after an adviser to Nome intervened.

This is how the Department of Homeland Security and the people around the Secretary will treat a United States senator for having the audacity to ask a question. Then imagine what they are doing to people in communities, not just throughout Los Angeles, but throughout the country. Padilla and other Democrats expressed outrage after the incident. Gavin Newsom called the scene outrageous. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended the agents, saying they believed Padilla was an attacker and accused the senator of engaging in, quote, disrespectful political theater. Top FBI officials also defended the federal agents. But even some Republicans

denounced Padilla's treatment. Senator Susan Collins of Maine said the incident was very disturbing. And Lisa Murkowski, a senator from Alaska, said, quote, it's not the America I know. More details are emerging from a plane crash in western India that killed more than 260 people on Thursday. The Air India flight, which was headed to London, crashed just seconds after takeoff. Video verified by the Times shows the plane descending slowly. It then appears to have skidded along the ground, damaging buildings, and then crashing

into a local medical college. At least five students at the college were killed, but officials say as many as three dozen people caught in the path of the plane may have died. Of the more than 240 passengers on the plane, just one is known to have survived. The Times spoke with his family, who lived in the UK, hours after the crash.

When the plane crashed, like, he literally got off the plane, and he ridiculed my dad, saying, oh, our plane's crashed. From right outside the plane? Yeah. Oh my God. OK. He's like, I don't see any other passengers.

He was just in shock, like, I don't know how my life. This morning, local health services appeared overwhelmed as they carried out hundreds of DNA tests to identify bodies so they can return them to families. And finally, there are some relationships that are just meant to be, even if one party isn't entirely thrilled about it, and research now shows that nothing quite compares to the connection between humans and bedbugs. According to a new study published in the journal Biology Letters, the bedbugs' long

affair with humans has been going on for much longer than previously thought, about 245,000 years. Back then, the insect fed entirely off of cave dwelling bats until it discovered the blood of a Neanderthal or some other early human that set up shop in the same cave. From that point on, scientists say, bedbugs diverged into two distinct species, one that lived solely on bat blood

and one that became exclusively reliant on humans. But the study says the key to the bedbugs' longevity is their resilience. They can live for more than a year without feeding, and they have a remarkable ability to overcome pesticides through rapid genetic mutation. Today, their populations are surging, thanks to globalization, the rise of inexpensive air travel, and accelerating urbanization. In some sense, our relationship has never been stronger.

Those are the headlines, but stick around, we've got the Friday news quiz for you after the credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Tracey Mumford, Jan Stewart, and me, Michael Simon Johnson. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, Katie O'Brien, and Paula Schumann. Now for the quiz. We've got questions about three stories

The Times has covered this week. Can you answer them all? First up. For a little breaking news, we are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker. During a speech this week, President Trump said he will restore the names of U.S. Army bases like Fort Lee or Fort Hood that were once named for Confederate generals. Fort Bragg is in, that's the name, and Fort Bragg, it shall always remain.

That's never going to be happening again. He was speaking to soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, originally named for the Confederate general Braxton Bragg. That name temporarily changed in 2023. What name had it changed to? Was it Fort Freedom, Fort Liberty, or Fort Eisenhower? The answer? Fort Liberty. The change came after Congress passed a law mandating that Confederate names be removed from bases. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restored the name back to Bragg in February,

and now they're doing that for seven more Army installations. In a statement, the Army said that the restored base names will no longer honor Confederates, but instead honor other American soldiers with similar names or initials, like Fort Lee, which is officially being named in honor of Private Fitz Lee, a black soldier who fought in the Spanish-American War. Okay, next question. Organizers in Spain, Italy, and Portugal are planning to protest against overtourism in

visitor hotspots on Sunday. They're expected to hold marches, disrupt traffic, picket airports, and block entrances to tourist attractions. They say the surge in tourism has contributed to housing shortages and rising rents for locals. This isn't the first time tourists have been targeted. Last summer, during a march in Barcelona, protesters harassed visitors using what? This news report from last year has the answer bleeped out.

See if you can get it. They marched around major tourist hotspots in that city, spraying visitors with brightly colored... encouraging them to go home. What were the protesters carrying? The answer is water guns. They squirted tourists sitting outside restaurants. Organizers say it was such a hit last year that they're encouraging protesters to bring back their colorful water guns this weekend.

Okay, last question. We told you earlier this week that the world is on the cusp of a BTS reunion. The popular boy band has been on hiatus since 2022, releasing solo albums and serving their mandatory military service in South Korea. The last member wraps up his service next week, and the band expects to go into the studio soon to work on a new album. So, to honor the return of one of K-pop's biggest acts, we want to test how well you know BTS songs. We'll play you three clips. Two of them will be from BTS.

One of them will be from another K-pop group. You have to figure out which one isn't a BTS song. Okay, here's song number two. And here's the last song. Okay, which one is not from BTS? If you said song number one was not BTS, you're right. That was the group Stray Kids with their hit, God's Menu. The BTS songs were Butter and Fake Love. Full disclosure, I would absolutely have not gotten that.

Alright, that's it for the news quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, or what you think about the quiz, you can always email us at theheadlines at nytimes.com. The show will be back on Monday, and we'll try a few more questions next Friday.