Israel carried out airstrikes targeting Iran’s senior military leadership and nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
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Israel carried out airstrikes targeting Iran’s senior military leadership and nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
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A federal appeals court has restored President Donald Trump’s control of the California National Guard. This came just hours after a judge ordered the administration to return control of the guardsmen to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has mobilized 7,000 National Guard soldiers and state troopers to keep the peace prior to planned protests against the Trump administration this weekend.
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At least 241 people died in an Air India plane crash on Thursday near Ahmedabad, a city in western India.
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🍵 Health: Why bitters may be the key to better digestion and blood sugar.
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☀️ Good morning! It’s Friday. Thank you for reading the Morning Brief, an exclusive newsletter for Epoch Times subscribers. 👋 New to Morning Brief? Subscribe. 🎧 Prefer to listen? Get the podcast. |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, on June 13, 2025. (Vahid Salemi/AP Photo) |
Israeli warplanes began carrying out airstrikes across Iran in the early morning hours on June 13, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast as a critical measure to protect his nation.
"Moments ago, Israel launched 'Operation Rising Lion'–a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival," Netanyahu said in a televised address shortly after reports emerged of the initial barrage.
Netanyahu said Iran had stockpiled enough highly enriched uranium to result in nine nuclear warheads, and said Iran could produce its first warhead in just a few months. He vowed the Israeli strike operations would continue "for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."
The full extent of the damage from the strikes cannot be independently verified at this time, but the Israeli military said it has relied on high-quality intelligence to precisely target aspects of Iran's nuclear program.
Netanyahu said the strikes targeted the leading Iranian nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, and an individual he described as Iran's leading scientist working on nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed Natanz was among the sites targeted in the Israeli military operation. "We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program," Netanyahu said. Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an Israeli strike in the Iranian capital city of Tehran, Iranian state TV confirmed.
As Israeli warplanes launched their offensive operations on Iran, the Israeli military began advising its citizens to take shelter, in anticipation of an Iranian retaliation. (More)
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Israeli government acted unilaterally in its decision to strike Iran, and the United States provided no direct assistance in the attack.
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Israel is in a nationwide shutdown with citizens warned to be prepared for a counterstrike.
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President Donald Trump, joined by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other lawmakers, holds up an executive order after signing a series of bills related to California’s vehicle emissions standards during an event in the East Room of the White House on June 12, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) |
President Donald Trump signed three Congressional resolutions to block California’s landmark vehicle emissions mandates.
The measures overturn California’s plans to phase out the sale of new gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, roll back its low-nitrogen oxide regulations for heavy-duty trucks, and rescind an Environmental Protection Agency waiver granted in December 2023 allowing the state to enforce stricter vehicle emissions standards.
A White House signing ceremony included top administration officials such as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, as well as members of Congress and representatives from the energy, trucking, and auto industries.
California is also considering the establishment of zero-emission standards on medium and heavy-duty trucks and implementing stricter controls on nitrogen oxide emissions. The move will likely intensify a longstanding power struggle between the federal government and the Golden State over environmental policy and differences in state and federal policy priorities. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, vowed to challenge the resolutions in court, arguing that the moves are illegal and will tag California taxpayers with an estimated $45 billion in additional health care costs. Serious legal questions loom over Congress’s authority to revoke a state-level law.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, previously determined that the Congressional Review Act cannot be used to block California’s vehicle emissions standards.
The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, agreed with that assessment. (More) More Politics: |
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President Donald Trump says he'll issue an order to address illegal immigrant farm and hotel workers as protests against immigration enforcement efforts spread nationwide. Trump said on his Truth Social account that farmers, hoteliers, and leisure business operators are telling him that the administration’s “very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, longtime workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” “Changes are coming!” the president said early on June 12.
- The Department of Homeland Security sent notices of termination to hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, and Haitian nationals who are present in the United States illegally, saying they must leave the country and that their work permits have been revoked.
- RFK Jr. appointed eight new members to a panel that advises the CDC on vaccines. Here’s who they are.
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The House of Representatives voted in favor of a Senate bill to reclassify fentanyl into the same category as illicit drugs like heroin, ecstasy, and LSD. The measure next heads to the president’s desk.
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The House passed a bill on Thursday to rescind $9.4 billion in federal spending. The seven-page bill eliminates funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It also rescinds $15 million from the Institute of Peace and $22 million from the African Development Foundation.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has mobilized 7,000 National Guard soldiers and state troopers to keep the peace prior to planned protests against the Trump administration this weekend.
Statewide, Abbott deployed 5,000 National Guard members and more than 2,000 Department of Public Safety troopers to help local police maintain law and order, his office said. Organizers of the No Kings Day of Defiance were planning up to 1,800 protests nationwide to oppose the Trump administration. “Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles in response to President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law,” the governor said.
Violent protests began in Los Angeles on June 6 after ICE worked with other federal agencies on an investigation that led to 44 arrests of illegal immigrants, many with prior criminal records. California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump after the president sent National Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles to quell unrest.
Organizers of the No Kings protests—a coalition of various groups—say they are committed to nonviolence. Their website says, “On June 14, we rise up.” Their protests were planned before the Los Angeles riots; the goal was to oppose Trump’s large celebration in Washington of the Army’s 250th anniversary and Flag Day, which also is his 79th birthday.
The Texas governor warned that anyone behaving violently or vandalizing property will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. (More) More U.S. News: |
- The average price of new vehicles remained steady in the United States in May compared to the previous month, despite the Trump administration’s auto import tariffs, according to vehicle valuation company Kelley Blue Book.
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Micron Technology said on Thursday it will invest an additional $30 billion in the domestic semiconductor industry, becoming the latest chipmaker to answer President Donald Trump’s call for bringing more investment to the United States.
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At least 241 people died in an Air India crash on Thursday near Ahmedabad, a city in western India. The plane, a Boeing 787 with 242 people onboard, bound for London and identified as flight AI 171, crashed into a residential area shortly after takeoff, said Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, director general of the directorate of civil aviation. A single survivor found in the aftermath recounted his experience.
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed,” the survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, told a local media outlet from his hospital bed. “It all happened so quickly.” Ramesh said he sustained impact injuries on his chest, eyes, and feet. “When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me,” he said. “Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
According to Vidhi Chaudhary, a senior Indian police officer, Ramesh was in seat 11A. The death toll slowly rose in the hours after the incident—making it the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a massive fireball when the plane crashed.
Imagery posted on social media by news outlets shows debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising into the sky near the airport. (More) More World News |
- British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, the sole known survivor of an Air India crash that killed hundreds, jumped out of an emergency exit near his seat, according to police.
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The U.S. Navy continues to operate technologically superior warships, but its overall fleet size is putting U.S. maritime dominance at risk in the face of China’s rapid naval expansion, Navy Secretary John Phelan said.
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The U.S. dollar continued to lose ground in 2024 as the world’s dominant reserve currency, but it was gold, not the euro, that capitalized most on the shift, according to a June 11 report from the European Central Bank.
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Big names from the worlds of politics, tech, and finance are gathering for the 71st meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group in Stockholm.
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Bitter foods and digestive bitters might not be the first thing you crave at mealtime, but science—and centuries of traditional wisdom—suggest they’re a missing foundation to your healthy lifestyle routine. From supporting digestion to balancing blood sugar and even influencing hormones that can help you lose weight, these pungent plants are making a comeback.
Digestive bitters are concentrated herbal extracts made from bitter-tasting plants—many of which you can find at your local health food store or online. Just a few drops before a meal can “wake up” your digestive system. However, what’s behind that distinctive bitter taste?
When you taste something bitter, you activate special receptors not just on your tongue, but throughout your digestive tract. These receptors, called type-2 taste receptors, trigger what’s commonly termed the “bitter reflex,” which helps your digestion by breaking down food molecules more efficiently. The bitter reflex can also aid gut motility, a response of the parasympathetic or “rest-and-digest” arm of the nervous system. While bitter herbs have been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine and other traditional healing systems to support the digestive system, modern science is now uncovering how they work.
The bitter reflex stimulates the production of saliva, stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes. Strong stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) secretion, which declines naturally with age, is particularly important for the digestion of proteins. Altogether, these secretions prepare the body for incoming foods, allowing for more efficient breakdown and absorption. (More)
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Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day. |
—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li. |
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