The Headlines - Trump Cuts G7 Trip Short, and Senate Republicans Propose Steep Medicaid Cuts

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Plus, streaming’s TV takeover. On Today’s Episode:Trump Returns to D.C. as Israel and Iran Trade Attacks, by Michael D. Shear, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Francesca RegaladoTrump’s Iran Choice: Last-Chance Diplomacy or a Bunker-Busting Bomb, by David E. Sanger and Jonathan Swan36 More Countries May Be Added to Trump’s Travel Ban, by Charlie Savage and Edward WongSenate Bill Would Make Deep Cuts to Medicaid, Setting Up Fight With House, by Catie Edmondson, Margot Sanger-Katz, Tony Romm and Brad PlumerGangs Terrorize Peru in an Epidemic of Extortion, by Mitra TajIt’s Official: Streaming Is Now the King of TV, by John KoblinTune 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 Tuesday, June 17th. Here's what we're covering. President Trump arrived back in Washington this morning after abruptly cutting short his time at the G7 summit to deal with the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. Trump had been in Canada for the annual summit of world leaders, where the conflict had been a major focus.

Before leaving, Trump signed a joint statement with G7 allies criticizing Iran and calling for restraint, de-escalation, and diplomacy in the Middle East. He had previously refused to sign the statement until its language changed. A spokesman for the German government said the purpose of the statement

was to have, quote, impact on the situation. Iran fired barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel on Monday, some of which struck several cities, killing at least eight people, according to Israeli officials. And this morning, Israel said it killed Iran's recently appointed top military commander and told residents in parts of the capital, Tehran, to evacuate. Israel also struck the headquarters of Iran's state broadcasting network, claiming it was used for military communications under the guise of civilian news. An Iranian news anchor was live on the air when the strikes hit, and she could be seen shaking and then quickly evacuating.

An official from the broadcaster said several people were injured in the bombing. Israel is also renewing its request for American intervention. For decades, the country has lobbied the US to help it hit a key nuclear enrichment site located deep inside an Iranian mountain. Israel has argued that destroying the site requires a 30,000-pound bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is so heavy it can only be carried by B2 bombers. Israel has neither the bomb nor the planes to carry out such an attack, but the US does. So far, the Trump administration has said it would not get involved.

Now two quick updates from Washington. The Trump administration is threatening to expand its new travel ban to as many as 36 more countries, most of them in Africa. Earlier this month, Trump imposed a full or partial ban on almost 20 countries, barring their citizens from traveling to the US. The president justified the ban as necessary for national security, but critics say it discriminates based on ethnicity alone. The expanded list of countries now have 60 days to address concerns from the US, including

passport security and citizens overstaying their visas. A government cable reviewed by the Times shows that the State Department is giving those countries another option, though. They can mitigate concerns by offering to take in people deported from the U.S. regardless of their nationality. Also, Senate Republicans have released their version of a major domestic policy bill, laying out a plan for deep cuts to Medicaid and salvaging some clean energy tax credits. The bill would require adults with children over 14 to work at least 80 hours a month to qualify for Medicaid.

That's stricter than the House version of the bill. That House version could cause an estimated 5 million people to lose coverage over the next decade. The Senate bill would also slowly phase out some clean energy tax credits put in by President Biden rather than quickly cut them. Some GOP House members are already complaining about the legislation, though, saying it's not aggressive enough in gutting clean energy. That frustration could complicate the bill's passage.

The Times has been tracking a crime wave fueled by gang activity in the country of Peru. Gangs there are gaining control of urban areas and have ramped up extortions, targeting small business owners and the working poor. Crime data has also shown a rise in contract killings in recent years, carried out by hitmen. Peru's government is struggling to contain the violence. After years of political turmoil and corruption, government services like policing have taken a toll. As one small business owner told The Times, quote, who's going to protect me? The level of violence that we've seen is really kind of unprecedented this century here in

Peru. Mitra Taj has been of unprecedented this century here in Peru. Mitra Taj has been reporting on the crime wave from Peru. There have been a lot of people shot dead in the street. I hired gunmen, often on motorcycles. There was a dynamite set off at a regional prosecutor's office. There's been grenades left at hardware stores and bodegas and pharmacies. I spoke to one motorcycle taxi driver who knows five people, other drivers who were killed for not paying extortionists. And so now he's setting aside a small part of his earnings, his meager earnings every day,

to keep them from attacking him. Mitra says Peru's president has declared a state of emergency multiple times to combat the gangs, but they've had little impact, and corruption is making that fight even harder with police officers being arrested for their own roles in the extortion schemes. In fact, a lot of victims of extortion say

they don't go to the police because they don't think doing so would lead to anything or they think it actually might make things worse because often the gang members find out that they filed a report and they end up getting even more threats. Peru for a long time was a very stable country in a very unstable region.

Its economy was growing very fast. It seemed to be making progress on different socioeconomic indicators, but now it's kind of gone the other direction. And I think this crime wave is threatening to make Peru another source of instability, not only political instability, but migration and economic instability in a region where that's already

very common. And finally, it's official, the streaming future has arrived. May was the first full month in which more Americans watched television on streaming services than on traditional cable and broadcast networks, according to Nielsen, which tracks viewership. Younger audiences had already been quick to jump on the streaming bandwagon, but now older viewers over the age of 65 are flocking to these services, especially free ones that don't require a subscription. Think Tubi or Pluto, if those words mean anything to you.

The biggest winner in all of this, though, is YouTube. In fact, over the past two years, viewers over 65 are the fastest growing age group watching YouTube on their TVs. The shift is largely due to cable companies cutting original programming on TV and pouring money into their own streaming platforms. That means many cable channels are now essentially zombie networks, playing endless reruns of Law & Order SVU or The Office, pushing viewers and advertisers away. Even big broadcast events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars are now available for streaming

too. So if you're looking for something new to watch, you can be relatively sure it'll be on a streaming platform. But according to these numbers, you probably already knew that. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, why ADHD diagnoses have surged in the U.S. That's next in the New York Times audio app or listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Simon Johnson.

We'll be back tomorrow.