Up First from NPR - US-Iran Strikes Test Talks, Venezuela Quake Search & Rescue, Trump's Immigration Wins

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is barely holding after a weekend of strikes, with the U.S. hitting Iran and Iran firing back at American bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, though talks are still set to resume and Israel and Lebanon have reached a deal of their own.Search and rescue efforts continue across Venezuela five days after two powerful earthquakes, with the death toll approaching 1,500 and thousands still missing as families dig through rubble themselves.And President Trump's immigration agenda just got a boost from the Supreme Court, with hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians now told to find new legal status or leave the country, even as a bigger ruling on birthright citizenship is still to come.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Miguel Macias, Tara Neill, Dana Farrington, Mohamad ElBardicy and Adam Bearne.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director is Zac Coleman.(0:00) Introduction(01:58) US-Iran Strikes Test Talks(05:36) Venezuela Quake Search & Rescue(09:24) Trump's Immigration WinsSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. and Iran spent the weekend trading fire. Iranians attacked two cargo ships. The U.S. then struck targets in Iran, and Iran followed that by firing missiles. Where does that leave a ceasefire? I'm Lela Faldil with Stevenson, and this is up first from NPR News. Coming up, we have an eyewitness account of devastation in Venezuela. An earthquake in Caracas knocked down buildings like dominoes. Our colleague, Hader Peralta, is there.

Also, the Trump and Trump. The administration tells hundreds of thousands of people with temporary protected status to apply for a new status or leave. Well, I actually give you a plane ticket, plus roughly $2,100 to help you reestablish when you get there. The administration won its case in court. Did it also win the politics? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. The United States and Iran spent another weekend of their ceasefire, not ceasing fire. The latest exchange of missiles began in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranians say Iran alone has control. Iran opposed a UN-backed plan, fired on ships, starting a whole new round of attacks with the U.S. The latest missiles yesterday went after U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

And Piersk, Kerry Khan is monitoring all this from Tel Aviv. Hi there, Carrie. Hi. Okay, I just got to ask, are the ceasefire peace talks, the continuing peace talks, still on? We believe so. A senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations told NPR last night that, quote, nothing has been canceled and talks are on track for the coming days. The Associated Press is reporting that Pakistan, a key mediator, says talks will resume Tuesday.

And yet we did have this exchange of fire. What happened over the weekend? In recent days, Iran struck two ships attempting passage through the Strait of Hormuz. These ships were going through this newly coordinated route that hugged the coast of Oman, which shares part of the Strait with Iran. Last week, the UN's International Maritime Organization and Oman set up this route. Iran says it is a violation of the preliminary plan for permanent peace. After Iran's attack on the first ship, the U.S. then struck multiple drone missile and radar sites in Iran.

Then Iran fired into Bahrain and Kuwait in retaliation. Okay, if Iran is striking ships on their way through the straight, is the straight open? Well, we'll see. Traffic did drop over the weekend, according to monitoring groups, But the conflict over who controls the Strait of Hormuz continues. Secretary of State Marker Rubio was just in the region and told Gulf allies, it will remain open. But yesterday, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Arachchi was adamant. He said any alternative or, quote, separate arrangements for the straight will lead to complications. The responsibility for these arrangements lies with Iran.

And no other entity or country, he said. Okay, so we've got two major sticking points in negotiations. One we've just been discussing the Strait of Hormuz. The other is Lebanon, where Israeli troops remain in the southern part of the country, and they say they're going to stay there. But Israel did reach an agreement with Lebanon's government. What's going on there? Yes, a deal was reached between the U.S., Israel, and the Lebanese government.

Late Friday, Israel says it's historic with the Lebanese army agreeing to disarmes. Hezbollah. Hezbollah, however, was not part of those talks and its leader over the weekend condemned the deal and demanded Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon. Last night, I spoke with Oferfalk. He's the foreign affairs advisor to Israel's prime minister, and I asked him repeatedly, how is this deal going to work without Hezbollah signing on and given the Lebanese army's poor track record? And here's what he said. There's only going to be one weapon in Lebanon is going to be the Lebanese government. It's historic that they recognize Israel's sovereignty and they seek peace with Israel. They're saying that straight out. He said Israel has laid the

path for the Lebanese army by greatly degrading Hezbollah's military might. But Steve fighting continued over the weekend, too, despite the deal, authorities in Lebanon and Israel say there were multiple deaths in Lebanon and one Israeli soldier was killed. Carrie, thanks for the update. You're welcome. That's NPR's Carrie Khan in Tel Aviv. Okay, we have an eyewitness account now of earthquake. damage in Venezuela. Much of the world has seen video of collapsed buildings in Caracas, a city of millions. The story hits differently when you meet some of the people who have been digging through the rubble. And Paris, Ader-Peralta is in Caracas. Hi there, Ader. Hey, Steve. What does it look and feel like there?

Hey, it's all just really tragic. I mean, yesterday, I was at the site of a 16-story building. I mean, I guess it would, it would used to be a building. Because, you know, now it's just a pile of rubble, like three stories high and people there told me that a rescue crew did show up at some point but they said it was too dangerous for them to work there and what I saw was just a couple of dozen family members climbing through the rubble and they were just picking random places to dig and then at times the smell of death would get stronger and they would dig faster and I mean look there are helicopters in the air and there's back hose and the Venezuelan government has deployed the military and the police,

and a bunch of foreign countries have sent rescue crews here, but there's just not enough of them to get to the more than 700 buildings that the government says were damaged here. Yesterday, we also drove, we were in front of a three-story building that was completely collapsed, and I saw parents just moving pieces of concrete

with their bare hands. No rescue crew had stopped to help them but their kid was under the rubble and they just wanted to have him back. So they were just there doing the work. Adir, you mentioned the smell of death. I just have to observe. There's a period after an earthquake or a disaster like this

where you're trying to find people who may be alive in the rubble. Have we gotten past that point where it's possible? Not officially, but we have seen a shift in the past few days. Like on Saturday, there was a rush to try and get people out of the rubble. and on highways I saw people just on motorcycles with shovels and picks on their back

and they were just trying to find any building that collapsed and they just started to dig there were a lot of calls for help coming from the buildings but the hours went by and the calls started diminishing and the smell is sort of like the hardest part of this the streets in La Waida which got the hardest hit by the earthquakes I mean, they started smelling of rotting flesh.

And rescuers say that the real opportunity to save people comes in the first three days. But, you know, I think everyone who has a person who is missing, and there's thousands of reported missing, you know, I think they're just waiting for a miracle at this point. When you say there aren't enough rescue crews, how are people thinking about the way the government has responded? I mean, help is so limited here that as we saw, you know, big trucks and earth-moving vehicles moved through the streets. People were standing in front of them saying, no, you have to go to my building to find my people. So I think, you know, there's a lot of anger and a lot of resignation.

And you see that in that people are walking through half-collapsed buildings trying to take couches out and their couches out, their refrigerators out of these buildings, knowing that it could collapse at any minute, but they feel like they're not going to get any help. So they have to get what they can out of these buildings. And Pierre Zader Peralta, thanks for going there so we can see this through your eyes. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Steve. Some other news now. The Trump administration says Haitians and Syrians, who have been in the United States under temporary protected status, now have two choices. They can apply for a new legal status. Or they can leave the country. Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullins,

said this on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Either try to fill out the paperwork and be here underneath a permanent status or will help you get back to your country. We'll actually give you a plane ticket plus roughly $2,100 to help you re-establish when you get there. But temporary protective status according to the courts and in its name itself is not permanent status. A Supreme Court ruling last week upended more than a decade of protections for Haitians and

Syrians with TPS, and it put protections for hundreds of thousands of other immigrants in question. The ruling was a win for Trump legally, but is it a win politically? Our senior national political correspondent, Mara Liason, has been looking into that. Mara, good morning. Good morning. Okay, before we get to the politics, let's start with the facts. What does happen here with 330,000 Haitians and Syrians? Mark Wayne Mullen did not directly answer whether the administration has a plans for mass deportations of these immigrants. And CNN's Jake Tapper pushed Mullen on whether Haiti and Syria were safe enough for people to return. Remember, the whole point of TPS, temporary

protected status, is to give protections to people whose country's home countries are too unsafe, either from war or natural disaster or other factors. And Mullen emphasized, as you heard him, say, that this program was meant to be temporary. He told Tapper, quote, maybe they can go back there and restore their country. And the Supreme Court ruled that the administration has discretion to make this decision in the way that they want. And also the court ruled on asylum cases as well, right? That's right. The court also reaffirmed the Trump administration's ability to restrict who can apply for asylum in the United States. The Constitution does give the executive branch control over immigration, and that's a power that Donald Trump has been using very aggressively.

But both of these cases uphold the ways that Trump is trying to. fundamentally reshape not just illegal immigration, but also the legal immigration system. But the question that's on your mind is a little different. So they're winning in court. They're getting to do what they want. Your question is whether that is politically good for the administration. Right. And that remains to be seen. You know, originally Trump's immigration agenda was very popular because it focused on things people really cared about, securing the border, deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records. But as time went on, it morphed into something different, like going after green card holders, people who'd been in the United States working

without a criminal record for decades. Some of these people were very integrated into the economies of their communities, like Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Remember, during the 2024 campaign, Trump expressed his long-held animus towards Haitians when he falsely accused them of eating people's pet dogs and cats. So then his immigration policy became much less popular, even among Republicans. What we have to watch for now is how the end of TPA, plays politically, and a lot of that is going to depend on how fast the administration moves to deport these immigrants, legal immigrants. The bottom line is that the U.S. is no longer a welcoming country for immigrants, even legal immigrants. The administration is also talking about

denaturalization, taking away citizenship, and that historically has been a very rarely used tool. Now we have another case looming. Any day now, we'll hear about birthright citizenship from the Supreme Court. That's right. Before the end of this term, Supreme Court is going to rule on whether every child born on U.S. soil is an American citizen. This is written into the Constitution, but the Trump administration is challenging that idea, and we don't know if the court will agree with him. But just the fact that the issue is before the court shows how far the Trump administration has pushed the debate about who is an American, who gets to be an American. And their position could ultimately be a political liability, even if there are legal wins along the way.

NPR's Mara Elias, and thanks for the insights. You're welcome. Here's another story we're following. One of the world's most famous art detectives was on the hunt for a stolen van go and turned to an unlikely source for help. You have born soccer plays, born teachers, born policeman. I'm a born burglar. This is the Sunday story from NPR News, how an art thief and an art detective set out to recover a missing masterpiece. You can listen right now to the Sunday story here in the Up First podcast from NPR News.

And that's up first for this Monday, June 29th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faldin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Craya, Miguel Maciel, Tanya, Marquis, Tara Neal, Dana Farrington, Mohamed Elbridesi, and Adam Beard. It was produced by Ziyadh and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director.

Is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow? Do you notice how, in the list of names here, Leila, the name of Christopher Thomas. Very big. Very big font. Our director is Christopher Thomas. Everyone else apparently much less important. Yeah.