Israel says Iran violates ceasefire, orders new strikes | The Excerpt
On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Israel says Iran has violated a ceasefire. Plus, Paste BN White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers breaks down how Middle East tensions will impact this week's NATO summit. The Supreme Court lifts a judge's limits on deportations to third-party countries. A judge blocks President Trump's plan to to bar foreign nationals from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard University. New York City Democrats head to the polls to vote in citywide elections that will determine their party's nominee for mayor. Paste BN National Correspondent Dinah Voyles Pulver breaks down the potential impact of proposed massive cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, June 24th, 2025. This is Paste BN's The Excerpt. Today, the latest after Israel says Iran breached a ceasefire. Plus we break down a pair of immigration rulings in court and how cuts to atmospheric research could endanger weather forecasts and lives. Israel's accusing Iran of breaching a ceasefire and says it will respond forcefully. The news came after Israel confirmed earlier in the day that it had agreed to a ceasefire with Iran, which also signaled it was willing to abide by the truce after President Donald Trump urged both nations not to violate it. Israel's defense minister said in the early morning hours US time that he had instructed the Israeli military to respond forcefully to Iran's violation of the ceasefire with high intensity strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran.
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Meanwhile, a NATO summit kicks off today in the Netherlands. I spoke with Paste BN White House correspondent Francesca Chambers late last night to learn more about the ceasefire and how tensions in the Middle East will impact this week's talks. Hey there, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Hey, Taylor. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for joining me, Francesca. So just how will recent strikes these tensions in the Middle East and everything that we've seen play out between Israel, Iran, and the United States in recent days? How will this be addressed by world leaders this week? How large will the situation in the Middle East loom over the summit?
Francesca Chambers:
Well, it'll certainly be a topic of discussion. Even NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte address that during the news conference on the eve of the gathering, he said that it's no surprise that it would come up given that Russia has been aided by Iran in its war against Ukraine. Iran has sent drones to Russia in that war, he said. So no doubt it'll emerge in the discussions. As for what leaders are expected to focus on during the first day of the summit, Taylor, they're attending a social gathering in the evening while the foreign ministers and Secretary of State have a separate working meeting to talk about Ukraine.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, we mentioned Ukraine. As for issues outside the Middle East, Russia's war on Ukraine has really been a NATO focus for years at this point. What can we expect this week at the NATO summit as it pertains to that conflict?
Francesca Chambers:
So last year, Taylor, former president Joe Biden, declared that Ukraine's future lies at NATO. And you might recall that the allies declared last year that Ukraine's pathway into NATO was irreversible. But this year we are already seeing a decreased focus on the conflict at this summit. The leaders are not going to hold their own NATO Ukraine council meeting instead, as I was mentioning before, that'll take place at a lower level. Now that said, Taylor, Rutte, the NATO Secretary General, said that allies would reaffirm their support for Ukraine. And that it would still be discussed at a range of meetings and leaders would also be joined by Ukrainian President, Vladimir Zelenskyy and his team at different meetings over the two-day summit.
Taylor Wilson:
This week, allies will approve a new defense investment plan raising the benchmark for defense investment to 5% of GDP. Francesca, what can you tell us about this?
Francesca Chambers:
Taylor, this is something that President Donald Trump has pushed for for a long time. He's long pushed allies to increase defense spending in his first term. It was a major issue for him and since coming back, he's pushed for that 5% number that you announced. Allies have had to get creative to figure out how they're going to meet it with them looking at breaking it down in two separate ways. Core defense spending as well as things like infrastructure that could include roads or bridges, things like that. I will also note that President Donald Trump before leaving for the summit said he didn't think that the United States should have to meet a commitment that high. He noted that the United States has long spent a lot of money on the NATO alliance.
Taylor Wilson:
It should be a fascinating next couple of days. Francesca Chambers covers the White House for Paste BN. Thanks, Francesca.
Francesca Chambers:
Thanks so much, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
An ideologically divided Supreme Court yesterday agreed to pause a judge's order requiring migrants be given the chance to contest they would be harmed if removed to countries other than their own. The move marks a win for the Trump administration's efforts to rapidly deport them. Attorneys for the migrants said the decision has horrifying consequences, but noted that the Supreme Court's ruling was about a judge's intervention at an intermediate stage of the case. The administration said the order lifted by the justices was preventing potentially thousands of deportations by requiring an onerous set of procedures aimed at preventing migrants from being sent to a country where they reasonably fear they could be persecuted, tortured, or killed.
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Federal judge yesterday blocked the Trump administration from implementing its plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard University. The preliminary injunction extends a temporary order the judge issued earlier this month that prevented the administration from enforcing a proclamation Trump sign that cited national security concerns to justify why Harvard could no longer be trusted to host international students. The proclamation prohibited foreign nationals from entering the country to study at Harvard or participate in exchange visitor programs for an initial period of six months and directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider whether to revoke visas of international students already enrolled at Harvard.
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New York City Democrats head to the polls today to vote in citywide elections that will determine their party's nominee and thus the favorite to win in November for every office from mayor to county court judge. There's particular attention on the mayoral race, it presents a stark contrast in its two leading candidates. 67 old former New York governor Andrew Cuomo is the oldest and State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani at 33 is its youngest. Each also represents an ideological poll in the 11 candidate field. Cuomo is a centrist who appointed many Republicans to his gubernatorial administration on its right and Democratic Socialist of America member Mamdani is on its left.
While Cuomo has pledged to hire more police and increase private housing construction, Mamdani has excited progressives with promises to freeze rents and regulated apartments and make buses free. Cuomo is a three-term governor who resigned in 2021 amid condemnation for scandals including covering up nursing home debts and numerous allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies. But many elected officials who went after Cuomo in 2021 are now endorsing him for mayor. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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Massive proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration could put forecasts and peril and lives in danger. I spoke with Paste BN national correspondent Dinah Voyles Pulver for more. Hello, Dinah. Thanks for joining me.
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
Thanks. Happy to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So just starting here, how is the Trump administration planning to dismantle the nation's atmospheric research programs and just really what is the plan?
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
President Trump's plan as it has been for the entire budget, is to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy and reduce the spending. The budget cut plan for NOAA is approximately 40%. One particular division of NOAA is earmarked to be zeroed out in the budget as it is proposed from the White House at the moment. And that's the Office of Atmospheric Research. And many longtime veterans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and even current employees at NOAA and the National Weather Service are really concerned about this plan to zero out much of the Department of Atmospheric Research simply because of the in-depth work that it does that affects all the other departments at NOAA. They are involved with satellites and involved with collecting data and information, and they're involved with designing and creating and running models that the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center use. These veterans say that a lot of the functions of the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center could be severely hampered if most of the functions of the Atmospheric Research Office go away.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, I want to hear a little bit more about that specifically, Dinah, who are some of the folks you spoke with and what are some of the kind of things that they told you?
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
Well, I spoke with James Franklin, who was a longtime hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center who got his start at the Atlantic Meteorological Laboratory there in Miami where they have a hurricane research division. So throughout his 35-year career with NOAA, Franklin was really concerned about improving these forecasts for hurricanes in terms of intensity and in terms of tracking. And they've made huge strides and he is one of those who was concerned if the atmospheric research program goes away, which includes this laboratory with the Hurricane research division, that a lot of the strides that have been made to vastly improve hurricane forecasting will just stop and will not go forward. I talked with Craig McLean, who was a former official with the Atmospheric Research Division as well as John Cortinas. These men have worked for years with Atmospheric Research and they are very familiar with the other roles that the agency plays in terms of working with the National Weather Service.
And then Alan Gerard, another one of the scientists I talked to was at the Severe Storms Laboratory. The Severe Storms Laboratory has at the moment, particularly focused on these extreme rainfall events that are happening in places like Waverly, Tennessee where an enormous amount of rainfall falls within just a few hours and causes this incredible flooding. And it's been very difficult for the National Weather Service to get models that have enough resolution to allow them to forecast in advance where a training rainstorm might wind up and how much rain may fall there. And they are really hoping to solve that puzzle and they believe that they might be able to do that with continued work. And they're afraid that this plan to gut atmospheric research would also cause trouble with this plan to improve the extreme rainfall forecasting.
Taylor Wilson:
Dinah, hearing on Capitol Hill Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended these proposed cuts. What did we hear from him and how else is the Trump administration defending them?
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
In his hearing with Congress, Lutnick defended the cuts and he insisted that they are still well-staffed and able to continue the research and the forecasting they've been doing at the National Hurricane Center as well as with the National Weather Service that has been disputed. His remarks have been disputed and one of the Congresswomen this week released a point-by-point to question each one of the remarks that he made. The Trump administration from the beginning has said that they wanted to roll back some of the divisions within NOAA that they call Climate Alarmism. They argue that particularly at the Office of Atmospheric Research, that there are scientists and programs that highlight climate change and human-caused climate change. And their position has been that it could have an undue impact on the economy. So that's why the Trump administration has tried to focus some of its effort on reducing what they view as climate alarmism.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, many of their steps really reflect the recommendations of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, right, Dinah? I mean, can you talk through that a bit?
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
Yes, they do. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought is one of those who helped co-author Project 2025, and he and the other authors of the document spent a fair amount of time discussing some of the aspects of the federal government that they feel like are causing climate change alarm that they would like to see scaled back.
Taylor Wilson:
You can find this full piece with a link in today's show notes. Great insight as always, Dinah. Dinah Voyles Pulver is a national correspondent focused on climate and the environment for Paste BN. Thanks, Dinah.
Dinah Voyles Pulver:
Thanks so much.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.