Here are the five key accomplishments from Israel’s opening days of operation Rising Lion.
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Read Online  |  June 17, 2025  |  E-Paper  | 🎧 Listen

 

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The Headlines

  • President Donald Trump called on residents to immediately evacuate the capital of Iran.
  • Here are the five key accomplishments from Israel’s opening days of operation Rising Lion.
  • President Trump announced the signing of a U.S.–UK trade agreement after his meeting with the leader of the United Kingdom.
  • British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend announced a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
  • 🍵 Health: Why some fruits and vegetables carry more pesticides.

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Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor

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Top Story

Smoke rises from locations targeted in Tehran amid the third day of Israel's waves of strikes against Iran, on June 15, 2025. (Zara/Middle East Images via AFP)

Trump Says Everyone Should ‘Immediately Evacuate Tehran’

President Donald Trump has called on residents to evacuate Tehran immediately, reiterating his long-standing warning that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon and suggesting Iran could be headed for a catastrophe by refusing to make a deal on nuclear disarmament.

 

“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” the president wrote in a June 16 post on social media.

 

Shortly after Trump’s warning, Iranian state media reported explosions and heavy air defense fire over Tehran.

 

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation order to residents in parts of Tehran on Monday, warning of imminent airstrikes targeting military infrastructure in the area.

 

“Dear citizens, for your safety, please leave the described area in the 3rd district of Tehran immediately,” states the message posted in Farsi by the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee on X.

 

“In the coming hours, the Israeli army will attack the military infrastructure of the Iranian regime in this area, as it has done in recent days in Tehran,” Adraee wrote. ”Your presence in this area endangers your life.” (More)

  • A top Iranian official on Monday called on the U.S. president to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.
  • President Donald Trump left the G7 summit earlier than planned, opting to return to Washington to deal with the Middle East.
  • Israel struck a studio used by Iranian state media. The attack appeared on live television in Iran.
  • Iran fired more missiles into Israel in the early hours of Monday, with emergency services reporting at least five people killed and 87 wounded, as the conflict shows no sign of abating.
  • A cargo flight operated by Cargolux, a Luxembourg-based airline partially owned by a Chinese company, appeared to divert from its scheduled route from China to Luxembourg and instead head toward Iran, prompting speculation about a possible air bridge between Beijing and Tehran amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.

🏛️ Politics

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed U.S.–UK trade deal next to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as they speak to reporters during the Group of Seven (G7) Summit at the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on June 16, 2025. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

US and UK Sign Trade Deal

The G7 summit in Canada opened on Monday with significant divisions on various issues, but a breakthrough emerged from a bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines.

 

Trump announced the signing of a U.S.–UK trade agreement after his meeting with the UK leader.

 

“We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both,” the president told reporters, alongside Starme.

 

Starmer echoed the sentiment, noting that the agreement slashes tariffs on automobiles and aerospace.

 

“This is a very good day for both of our countries,” he said.

 

Negotiations for a UK–US Free Trade Agreement have been stalled since Autumn 2020, with no significant progress until their revival in February following Starmer’s visit to the White House.

 

“I want to just tell that to the people of the United Kingdom—he’s done a very, very good job,” Trump said, praising Starmer.

 

“They’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”

 

At the beginning of their remarks, Trump opened a folder to show the press the documents on the trade deal, and several pages fell out and onto the ground. Starmer quipped, “Very important document” as he helped pick up some of the pages.

 

Both sides had announced on May 8 that they had reached an agreement on the general terms of the trade deal.

 

The deal provides “American companies unprecedented access to British markets while bolstering the national security and economy of the United States,” according to the executive order Trump signed for the implementation of the trade agreement. (More)

 

More Politics:

  • The American Bar Association has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the White House and dozens of federal agencies are orchestrating an unconstitutional campaign of “blizzard proportions” to intimidate lawyers and law firms.
  • Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Donald Trump have committed to reaching a trade deal within 30 days, following a meeting on the first day of the G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Alta.
  • The Senate Finance Committee released portions of a revised version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, reigniting the debate over changes to the Medicaid program and the State and Local Tax Deduction.

🇺🇲 U.S.

Tributes Pour In for Slain Minnesota Lawmaker Remembered as ‘Formidable Public Servant’

Heartfelt tributes have poured in for former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were both shot and killed at their home in Brookland Park, Minnesota. 

 

Minnesotans who knew her praised her as a “formidable public servant” and a woman deeply involved in her community.

 

The suspect, Vance Boelter, is currently in custody.

 

State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, meanwhile, are on the road to recovery after they narrowly avoided the same fate when they were also targeted at their Champlin home. Boelter is also the suspect in that case.

 

Police officers detained Boelter, who allegedly disguised himself as a police officer during the shootings, in Sibley County.

 

In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called it a “terrible shooting.”

 

“Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America,” he said. “God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!” (More)

 

More U.S. News

  • The man who allegedly gunned the Hortmans visited at least two other homes on the night of his rampage, officials said on Monday.
  • The share of homes sold above their listing price was at 28.5 percent for the four weeks ending June 8, the “lowest level for this time of year since 2020, when the start of the pandemic ground the housing market to a halt,” according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage.
  • U.S. stocks surged at the start of the trading week, rebounding from Friday’s selloff sparked by geopolitical tensions following Israel’s large-scale attack on Iran.
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🌎 World

UK Announces National Inquiry Into Grooming Gangs

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend announced a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

 

The grooming gang scandal first gained national attention in Britain in the early 2010s, after revelations that gangs of men, mostly of Pakistani heritage, had targeted vulnerable girls—grooming and raping them—since at least the early 1990s.

 

Over the weekend, Starmer said he would accept a recommendation from an independent reviewer for a judge-led inquiry into the scandal, with the power to summon witnesses.

 

Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Canada for the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, he said he had asked Baroness Louise Casey, an expert on victims’ rights and social welfare, to review previous findings of investigations into the issue.

 

The findings of that review were part of a report made public on Monday.

 

“Her position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry over and above what was going on,” Starmer said. “She has looked at the material she has looked at, and she has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report, and I am going to accept her recommendation.” (More)

 

More World News

  • The European Commission this week proposed an 18th sanctions package against Russia targeting the country’s energy, banking, and military-industrial sectors. With the aim of driving down Russian oil revenue, the proposed sanctions package also calls for a further reduction of the G7’s price cap on Russian oil from $60 to $45 per barrel.
  • President Donald Trump said on Monday that throwing Russia out of the group formerly known as the Group of 8 was a mistake.
  • At least 270 bodies have been recovered to date from the site of Air India’s plane crash in Ahmedabad, western India.
  • One of the world’s biggest darknet marketplaces for fentanyl and other drugs, Archetyp, has been taken down by German police, as part of Operation Deep Sentinel. Its alleged creator and administrator has been arrested in Spain.

☀️ A Few Good Things

📷 Photo of the Day: People sit on plastic stools as they chat in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam, on June 16, 2025. Nhac Nguyen/AFP via Getty Images

Day in Photos: Minnesota Shooting Memorial, G7 in Canada, and Aerobatic Flying

✍️ Opinion: President Trump’s Defining Middle East Legacy by Michael Flynn & Frank J. Gaffney (Read)

 

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🎵 Music: Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank (Listen)

 

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🍵 Arts & Culture

A bust of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The Best of Bach: 10 Great Baroque Compositions 

Donald Jay Grout’s “A History of Western Music,” first published by W.W. Norton in 1960, is considered the definitive single-volume book on the subject.

 

Grout is gospel among music historians, and, in the eighth edition, we encounter this proclamation: “Posterity has raised Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) to the pinnacle of composers of all time.”

 

Bach was also one of the most prolific composers. The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, or Bach Works Catalogue (BWV), currently ascribes 1,176 pieces of music to him (the most recent 50 of which were only added in our century).

 

Among so many works, choosing the 10 “best” pieces is difficult. But we can at least give it a shot.

 

Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565)—This is probably the most recognizable piece of any that Bach wrote, which is mostly due to its association with Halloween. 


The “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” displays Bach’s virtuoso organ skills, the instrument for which he was most famous in his lifetime. It begins with fast arpeggios in a free style, then transitions to the more structured Fugue where the main theme is overlapped and repeated in different melodies.

 

‘Air on the G String’ (BWV 1068)—This is one of the most serene and relaxing pieces in the entire classical repertoire. The version that most listeners are familiar with is August Wilhelmj’s 1871 arrangement. 

 

Originally, in the second movement of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3, the violin plays on a higher register. Wilhelmj dropped the violin part down to the instrument’s lowest pitch—the G string. (More)

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