Iran launches waves of missiles at Israel in response to strikes | The Excerpt
On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Iran has launched waves of missiles at Israel in response to recent airstrikes. Paste BN White House Correspondent Bart Jansen has the latest on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal situation. The Army marks its 250th anniversary Saturday with a parade and festival. Most Americans think the military parade is 'not a good use' of money. A judge blocks the State Department's planned mass layoffs. President Donald Trump reports more than $600 million in income. Paste BN Sports Reporter Tom Schad tell us how the presence of ICE and CBP at this month's FIFA Club World Cup games is raising concerns, despite being a normal practice.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Saturday, June 14th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, the latest amid Israel and Iran strikes, plus Kilmar Abrego-Garcia pleads not guilty, and we discuss how ICE and border patrol presence at upcoming Club World Cup soccer games is raising concerns.
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Iran and Israel continue to target each other with missiles and airstrikes. Iran's UN Envoy said 78 people, including senior military officials, have been killed in Israel's strikes on Iran. Tehran launched airstrikes overnight and this morning, Fars reported. One of the waves targeted Tel Aviv before dawn, with explosions heard as far as Jerusalem witnesses said. Those were in response to Israel's attacks on Iran this week against commanders, nuclear scientists, military targets, and nuclear sites.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment activities are part of a secret weapons program, but the UN nuclear watchdog found this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global Non-Proliferation Treaty. Meanwhile, at least a man and a woman were killed in Israel by a missile that landed near their homes, according to Israel's ambulance service. And the US military has helped shoot down Iranian missiles headed for Israel, according to American officials speaking to Paste BN. You can stay with all the latest throughout the weekend on usatoday.com.
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Kilmar Abrego-Garcia pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of human smuggling. I spoke with Paste BN White House Correspondent Bart Jansen for more.
Hey there Bart, thanks for joining me.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop. What actually happened then, Bart, and what do prosecutors say Abrego-Garcia did, what is he charged with?
Bart Jansen:
Abrego-Garcia faces two federal charges, trafficking in undocumented immigrants for financial gain and a conspiracy to do that. And so the indictment in particular describes him getting pulled over in a traffic stop by Tennessee State Police in November of 2022, and the trooper finds nine other Hispanic men in this Chevy Suburban with him. None of the other men had identification, none had luggage, so it comes across as a potential trafficking situation. Now, he officially pleaded not guilty on Friday and he will be fighting these charges, but the investigators found that he told the police that he was transporting the men from construction work in St. Louis back to their homes in Maryland. But license plate readers said that that vehicle had not been near St. Louis in at least a year, and that they did document it being in the Houston area.
Taylor Wilson:
So what plea did we get during this hearing yesterday?
Bart Jansen:
He offered a formal plea for the first time on Friday saying he was not guilty, and so the judge is continuing to consider whether he should be detained while awaiting his trial on those charges.
Taylor Wilson:
Bart, how are immigration advocates and labor organizers pushing back? I know some of them were even gathered outside the courthouse yesterday, correct?
Bart Jansen:
Immigration advocates and other supporters have argued that he's always deserved due process to have a court hear his responses to charges put against him, and that he is finally getting that in this federal courtroom in Tennessee. His problem was that he was working his way through an immigration case. He's been in the United States for decades, he was earlier, years ago, arrested and faced potential deportation, and so he filled out an asylum application and an immigration judge made an order that he could not be deported while the asylum case was pending, but he was picked up anyway in March by the Trump administration and deported to El Salvador. The administration was reluctant to bring him back to the United States until he was indicted on May 21st on these two federal charges, and so now he's been brought back and he will face these charges.
Taylor Wilson:
What sentence could Abrego-Garcia face if found guilty, Bart?
Bart Jansen:
The charges are fairly serious and carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each person he's accused of trafficking. So at the very least he had nine people in the van during that November 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, so that would be a substantial number of years if he got the maximum. Authorities have said that he made many, many trips basically between Texas and elsewhere in the United States. The investigator said that he could make $1000 per trip and that he made many, perhaps one or two a week. This is all just allegations.
What was interesting about the hearing was that while it was nominally a detention hearing where you'd be talking about just the government's allegations that he's a flight risk, that he might run away if he's let out of jail, or that he could intimidate witnesses if he is let out of jail, the case dealt much more with almost like a preliminary hearing where the prosecutors were going over a lot of the evidence that they say they've accumulated against him, perhaps to reinforce the seriousness of the charges for the magistrate judge in the case.
Taylor Wilson:
Bart Jansen covers the White House for Paste BN. Thanks, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
US magistrate judge Barbara Holmes in Tennessee was also hearing arguments about whether to keep Abrego-Garcia detained while awaiting trial. He will remain detained until Holmes makes her decision, which she said would come sooner rather than later.
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The Army is marking its 250th anniversary today with a festival, musical performances, fireworks and a pomp-filled procession through the streets of Washington DC. The parade and Festival on the same day as President Trump's 79th birthday and Flag Day will take up several blocks of central Washington and be held mainly on the National Mall. The Army will also be showing off a vast array of weapons and vehicles, including tanks. Organizers say the festivities mark the opening event for the yearlong celebration of America's 250th birthday next year.
A poll out this week from the The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 40% of adults surveyed said they approve of Trump's decision to hold a military parade, about 29% of adults said they disapprove, while 31% chose neither approve or disapprove. But six in 10 think the military parade is not a good use of money, it's expected to cost some $40 million.
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A federal judge in California yesterday temporarily blocked the State Department from implementing an agency-wide reorganization plan that includes nearly 2000 layoffs. The US district judge in San Francisco said that her ruling last month barring federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees at President Trump's direction applies to the planned overhaul announced by the State Department in April. The department had argued that its reorganization plan submitted to Congress last month predated a previous executive order and White House memo directing mass layoffs, putting it outside the scope of the judge's decision.
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President Donald Trump's sources of income range from luxury properties around the world to royalty payments and license fees for using his name and likeness on everything from sneakers to Bibles. According to a financial disclosure form filed yesterday, Trump reported more than $600 million in income. The annual financial disclosure form, which covered the 2024 calendar year, shows the President's move into crypto added to his wealth, but he also reported large fees from developments and revenues from his other businesses. Overall, Trump reported assets worth at least $1.6 billion according to a Reuters calculation.
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Thousands of soccer fans will flock to stadiums across the country beginning this weekend as the FIFA Club World Cup kicks off, and ICE and Customs and Border Protection will be there too. I spoke with Paste BN Sports Reporter Tom Schad about why their normal practice at sporting events is raising concerns, especially ahead of a much bigger event next year, the Men's World Cup, when national teams and their fans from around the world are set to visit.
Tom, I appreciate you stopping by.
Tom Schad:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So just starting here, Tom, what are the concerns we're hearing about ICE and CBP at the Club World Cup this month?
Tom Schad:
Yeah, so it's one of those things that has been pretty routine over the years, but it's just taking on kind a different tenor and different optics with kind of everything that's going on with immigration enforcement under President Trump. Essentially with major sporting events, it's pretty normal to have federal law enforcement officers helping out local law enforcement. You're not just getting the local police, the local sheriff, you're also getting, places like the Super Bowl, you're getting officers from the Department of Homeland Security, including, in a lot of cases, Customs and Border Protection, or ICE.
So that is not unusual, but what is unusual is, again, the tenor and the way that ICE and CBP kind of marketed that they were going to be at these Club World Cup games, which again are taking place across the United States over the next couple of weeks. There's some unspoken context here that there's a massive Hispanic fan base for soccer in the United States, especially in places like Miami and California, which are among the sites that are going to be hosting these games. Miami in particular is where this kind of raised some cause for concern, raised some eyebrows among immigration advocates there.
Taylor Wilson:
What are you hearing specifically in terms of the worries from advocates and I guess what advice are they giving folks in this moment?
Tom Schad:
There's a concern particularly in Florida that these games would be the latest site where customs and immigration officials would enforce the immigration laws as they've done it schools or on the streets or even at immigration hearings at the courtroom, use that as an opportunity to identify people who are in the country illegally or don't have proof of residency, and use that as an opportunity to detain and potentially deport them.
Now, ICE and CBP, ICE has not responded to our requests for comment about their role. CBP basically issued a statement saying, this is totally routine, we're there in a security capacity, and, again, kind of in the normal course of operation, CBP has a lot of equipment that they use to scan, like trucks, for example, as they're crossing the border, that can be of great use to a security personnel at a place like a stadium where you have a little bit more sophisticated way to see what's in a truck as it's entering the stadium to drop off food, or what have you.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, Tom, we're a year away from the World Cup, not just the Club World Cup, but the national teams are coming to the US, Canada, and Mexico next summer for a really infinitely bigger event being held largely by the US. I'm just curious what all this might mean for the World Cup then, if some of the same concerns are going to last through the year, and do we hear from FIFA at all about some of these issues, Tom?
Tom Schad:
Yes, the president of FIFA spoke earlier this week, was asked about ICE and CBP being at Club World Cup games and said it's not a concern and that a lot of this had been ironed out and the biggest concern is just keeping everybody safe, pretty boilerplate stuff. To your question about the Men's World Cup, the international tournament that's coming next year, I think that's where this is going to be a much bigger concern, and it's not specifically about ICE and CBP officers being security at a game, it's more about ingress and egress, fans from other countries getting safely into the United States, and then also feeling comfortable to come to the United States.
It was something that at least in recent years had never really been much of a question, and now obviously President Trump has implemented a travel ban on citizens from a handful of countries. Even if your country's not on that list, I think there are a lot of fans around the world that are going to see the headlines out of the United States, particularly from Central and South America and think, well, is this a place that I really want to go right now to support my team? The United States government has pledged that there won't be any issues, that everybody will be able to come into the country easily, return home, no problem. But again, this all kind of centers around the optics. There may or may not be a chilling effect as we get into both the World Cup and then also the Los Angeles Olympics, which are coming in 2028.
Taylor Wilson:
Folks can find Tom's full piece with a link in today's show notes. Tom Schad is a reporter for Paste BN Sports. Thank you, Tom.
Tom Schad:
Appreciate it.
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Taylor Wilson:
And tomorrow morning, we all know it's not a great idea to walk around with a big fat wad of cash on you, you're just asking to be a victim of thievery. But what about having a big fat crypto wallet online? How do you guard against thieves there?
Nick Newman:
The best defense is really protecting yourself upfront, making yourself a harder target so that people aren't going to view you as somebody who they can get a bunch of money from if they're able to successfully pull off one of these thefts.
Taylor Wilson:
That was Casa CEO Nick Newman. His firm specializes in cryptocurrency security solutions, and he joins my colleague Dana Taylor for a conversation on the challenges crypto wealth poses to owners in the physical world. That's airing right here on this feed tomorrow beginning at 5:00 A.M. Eastern Time.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and as always, if you have any comments or questions, you can email us at podcasts@USAtoday.com. I'm Taylor Wilson, I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USAtoday.