The Headlines - JD Vance’s Blunt Warning to Israel, and Why Waymo Is Struggling to Go National

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

Plus, the Friday news quiz. Here’s what we’re covering: Vance’s Defense of Iran Deal Rests on Vague and Misleading Claims, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Rebecca F. Elliott and Erica L. Green Israel, Stunned by Trump’s Iran Deal, Sees It as a ‘Catastrophic Capitulation’, by David M. Halbfinger ICE Spent $700 Million on 7 Warehouses. Now It Wants to Get Rid of Them., by Hamed Aleaziz Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional, by Greg Jaffe and Maggie Haberman Education Dept. Lowers Student Loan Rates for Borrowers in Auto Pay, by Ron Lieber, Tara Siegel Bernard and Michael C. Bender Elon Musk’s Feud With Delaware May Transform Corporate America, by Michael Steinberger Why Waymo’s Driverless Taxis Won’t Be on Your Streets Anytime Soon, by David McCabe Listen to the end of the episode for an audio news quiz. If you want to take The Times’s weekly online news quiz, go here. Tune in, and tell us what you think at [e-mail]. For corrections, email [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, June 19th. Here's what we're covering. Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. Yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance delivered a blunt message to those in Israel who have been criticizing the deal the U.S. struck with Iran. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking. the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.

Vance held a press conference at the White House as the administration's been pushing back against a growing wave of criticism over the peace agreement, coming from both at home and abroad. Critics say the deal gives Iran economic relief now while punting negotiations on the nuclear program down the road. One fiery opinion piece by the head of a major Israeli paper called it a catastrophic capitulation.

While the war started as a joint U.S.-Israeli operation, Israel was excluded from the peace negotiations, and analysts and officials there say the deal now leaves Israel worse off than before the war. The Iranian regime's not only still in place, it's more emboldened, and the agreement doesn't address Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, a key concern for Israel. Beyond that, the agreement also tries to introduce a new restraint on the Israeli military, by calling for the immediate and permanent termination of operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting the Iran-back militia Hezbollah. Vance acknowledged yesterday that the White House has grown frustrated with some of the Israeli operations there.

And then all of a sudden, there's a major explosion that goes off in a civilian population center in Beirut, and a lot of people who have nothing to do with Hezbollah lose their lives. That's not acceptable. That's the sort of thing that we've asked for closer coordination so that we ensure it doesn't happen. Overnight, there was a new wave of deadly attacks in southern Lebanon that showed the fighting there has not ended. Lebanon's state news agency said Israeli airstrikes killed at least eight people, and the Israeli military said four of its soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by Hezbollah. In terms of what comes next with the peace agreement, the U.S. and Iran were set to start a new round of negotiations today

about many of the big outstanding issues between them. But ahead of those talks, Switzerland, which was the United States, which was set to host, said the negotiations had been postponed. As of this morning, it's not clear why. The Times has learned that the Trump administration is planning to sell or offload many of the warehouses it was going to turn into immigration detention centers. In the past year, it had bought up a lot of properties. A massive long-vacant warehouse could soon become the largest migrant detention facility in Texas.

Basically going on a bit of a spending spree. We're learning a massive ICE detention center holding as massive. as 10,000 immigrants could come to Glendale. The warehouses were supposed to be key to the administration's mass deportation campaign, but the facilities quickly turned out to be costly and controversial. Critics worry about the strain on local infrastructure and conditions inside. It was expensive to convert the warehouses to be able to safely hold thousands of people, and ICE was battered by lawsuits, alleging the agency skirted environmental laws

as it rushed to get the centers up and running. Now, according to documents, obtained by the Times, ICE is set to offload most of the 11 warehouses it bought, selling them or turning them over to other federal agencies. The cost of those properties was more than $700 million. The plan reverses course on what had been a signature initiative for the Department of Homeland Security as it tried to aggressively round up potential deportees. In a statement, DHS said it as, quote, moving swiftly to utilize existing detention space. Now, two other quick updates on the administration.

First, we're seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities. This includes the universal flu vaccine. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon would no longer require U.S. troops to get vaccinated for the flu. He framed the change as a matter of religious freedom and said people should have the right to make their own medical decisions. Now, the Air Force is working to contain an outbreak of the flu at an air base in Texas. Nearly 160 service members have fallen ill. One trainee at the base died after getting sick last week, though it wasn't immediately clear if his death was related to the flu.

In all, since the new policy went into effect, flu vaccination rates in the Air Force have plunged. According to a military official, about 60% of trainees have opted not to get vaccinated. But to try and contain the outbreak, the Air Force is now requiring all recruits at the affected base to get flu shots. Also, the Education Department has announced a new effort to try and get more people to pay back their student loans. Starting in July, it will temporarily lower student loan interest rates by up to a full percent for most borrowers who sign up for automatic payments.

The Trump administration created the benefit to try and address the fact that the majority of people with federal student loans are behind on their payments. It comes as the administration is doing a broader overhaul of the whole student loan system, and in less than two weeks, millions of federal borrowers will be notified that they have to choose a new repayment plan. 1209 North Orange Street in Wilmington, Delaware is an aggressively bland building. You walk past it, you wouldn't give it a second thought, but it actually happens to be the legal address for hundreds of thousands of corporations,

including some of the biggest names in the business world. Walmart, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Apple. They're registered in Delaware because Delaware has, for more than a century, been America's corporate capital. But that may be changing now, thanks in no small part to Elon Musk. Michael Steinberger is a contributing writer to the New York Times magazine. He says that Delaware's business dominance goes back 100 years to when it started luring companies in

by promising more lenient corporate laws than other states. A couple years ago, though, a Delaware court thwarted Tesla's plan to give Elon Musk, its CEO, a $55 billion compensation package. Musk was infuriated and more or less declared war on Delaware, saying he was moving Tesla as well as SpaceX to Texas and urging other companies to do the same. Where Musk led, others are following. A number of big-name companies have, left Delaware and reincorporated in either Texas or Nevada, states that are looking to take

advantage of this incipient revolt against Delaware. Both states have signaled through legislation and public messaging that companies can expect gentler treatment in their respective jurisdictions. And that pitch seems to be working. On the one hand, there's always been something anomalous about the fact that tiny Delaware, America's second smallest state, wields so much authority over corporate governance. It is the de facto arbiter of U.S. corporate law. In law schools in the United States, corporate law is principally the study of Delaware corporate law. And some of the experts I spoke to suggested that maybe some regulatory competition would be a good thing.

You know, we've got now a growing number of trillion-dollar companies, we've got centa-billionaire CEOs, and maybe regulatory competition can help us figure out how. how to regulate these very powerful entities and individuals. But other experts think that that is very wishful thinking and that what's more likely to happen is what they call a race to the bottom in which states competing to attract companies, progressively weaken checks on corporate malfeasance, and basically signal to corporate insiders

that they can get away with pretty much anything they want if they register their companies in their states. And finally, Okay, I think the world is crazy. I can't get used to it. I'm sitting in a car, and it doesn't have a driver. For a moment there, it seemed like Waymo's, the self-driving taxis, were spreading everywhere as the cars hit the road in city after city, state after state. A Waymo driverless car is coming to get me. I'm traveling in Arizona.

And they have reached a lot of places. The cars are giving people rides in California, Texas, Florida, Tennessee. I just tried a driverless taxi in Orlando, and I'm low-key obsessed. and passengers are paying for a half a million rides every week. But in a lot of other places, Waymo's expansion efforts have now stalled. In part, that's because there's a vacuum of federal rules about AI-powered self-driving technology, so the company has to win over state and local officials one by one,

and it's hitting some roadblocks. New York City, for example, is one of the largest ride share markets in the world. But Mayor Zoran Mamdani has said he's concerned about what what self-driving taxis could mean for cab drivers. And a New York state-level proposal faced fierce pushback from drivers, too. The company hasn't been able to move forward in Illinois or D.C. either. Some of it is safety concerns. And some of it may also reflect how people have grown increasingly wary of AI in general recently,

with its potential to disrupt the economy and job market. For now, in New York City, Waymo being in limbo has left kind of a strange scene. The company had been testing autonomous driving there, but its permit to do that expired in March. So its cars are still cruising around the city, collecting data, but they're being driven by humans. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Cedifa, Jake Lucas, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley, Alyssa Moxley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood.

Now, time for the quiz. Every week, we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all? First up. At Starbase, it's SpaceX, celebrating its record-breaking IPO. Elon Musk's company SpaceX has now been trading on the stock market for a full week, and it is doing pretty well. The company has gained roughly a trillion dollars in market value and is now one of the six most valuable public companies in the world. We are going to see if you can name the other five that

round out that list. They are all big names, so we'll just give you quick clues here. We're giving them to you in no particular order. Let's start with a fruit. That's your hint. A fruit. That's Apple. Next one, ABCs. That's Alphabet, parent company of Google. How about chips but not potatoes? Chips, but not potatoes. Looking for invidia there. This one's a very long river. It's Amazon. And the last tech giant on the list of most valuable? That's Microsoft. Now, while some of these companies might be worth more than SpaceX, Elon Musk still has the title of World's Richest Man, and it is not even close. He is now likely worth three times more than the runner-up, one of the Google Founders.

Okay, next question. I'm hoping that my phone is capturing that noise. It is actually significantly loud. Across the country, there's been a number of lawsuits recently about a noise. It's so loud. Like, why is it so loud? People in urban, suburban, and rural areas are encountering a specific hum. They say can keep them up at night.

Some say they can even feel it rumbling. They've broken out the decibel meters, posted clips of it online, and in some cases, sued. What is the source of the sound that's really riling people up? The answer? I just want you to hear what it sounds like close to a data center. Data centers. Some of the noise is likely the humming of the cooling systems needed to keep the chips from melting, or the rumbling of the generators powering the center.

The number of these kinds of projects is skyrocketing. in the U.S. right now. And according to one analysis, today, nearly 40% of American homes are within five miles of at least one data center. And last question. With the World Cup underway, thousands and thousands and thousands of people from all over have been traveling to the U.S. to catch some of the games. There are 11 host cities in the U.S., including Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Miami. And between the matches, many of the soccer fans are taking some time to visit some very American institutions. We are back in Walmart. It's like a museum. We're going to play a few clips of people posting about their visits to some big box stores and big chains that seem to

have become unexpected tourist destinations. Try to guess the business they're talking about. First up. They say it's a gas station and the mascot is a beaver in a baseball cup. For this, think pit stop in the south. Everybody says get the beaver nuggets, so we're going to get some of these. Apparently the Jericho is really good, so we're going to get some of that. The answer? Buckees, the Texas-based gas station chain known for its mega-sized convenience stores. Okay, your next one is an outdoor retailer.

I knew that this shop sold a lot of items. I did not realize that they sold boats, side by sides, and cord bikes. What in the world, this place is insane. That was someone just absolutely blown away by the selection at Bass Pro Shops. And last one, it's 4 a.m. Let me show you what I have. I have hash brands.

I have another waffle. Of course, you know, my usual. And I have a little sandwich. So I'm going to be trying all three of them right now. Okay, so first up, I have the hash brands. That was one scyenne. Scottish tourists trying a wee bit of Waffle House. Just your normal house, Bernie.

Oh, it's good. I enjoy it. I mean, really, the whole internet recently has become a buffet of tourists reviewing almost everything about the country. Even one video titled Scottish People Try American Emergency Room. I don't know exactly how the cost thing works out because we got this bill that had $800 on it. I think that might have just been like a deposit, though. All I can say is, welcome to America. That is it for this week's news quiz.

I'm Tracy Mumford. The show will be back on Monday with my colleague Will Jarvis.