Monday Briefing: Israel and Iran trade attacks

Plus, the Dalai Lama's succession
Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition
June 16, 2025

Good morning. We're covering escalating attacks between Israel and Iran, and a manhunt in the U.S. after the killings of a state lawmaker and her husband.

Plus, the Dalai Lama's succession.

A distant shot of a rising cloud of smoke over Tehran.
After an attack on an oil refinery in Tehran yesterday.  Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Israel and Iran traded missile strikes

Israel and Iran exchanged attacks on population centers yesterday as both sides brushed aside international calls to de-escalate.

The path to diplomacy appeared to narrow after officials called off talks that had been set for Sunday between Tehran and Washington on the future of Iran's nuclear program. Israel said the goal of the powerful strikes it unleashed on Friday was disabling Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

President Trump urged the warring nations to stand down in the fighting. "Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal," he wrote in a post on social media. He said: "Many calls and meetings now taking place."

The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps warned that it would increase attacks against Israel if the barrage didn't stop. Israel's military spokesman said Israel would not cease its attacks on Iran "for a moment." We have live updates, and these maps show where Israel and Iran have struck since Friday.

Unprepared: Interviews with half a dozen senior Iranian officials show that they were not expecting Israel to strike before another round of talks. They made an enormous miscalculation, my colleague Farnaz Fassihi writes.

My colleague Katrin Bennhold spoke to Patrick Kingsley, our Jerusalem bureau chief, about Israel's goals in attacking Iran. Watch the video.

Law enforcement officers with a dog walk along a residential street.
Police patrolled in Minnesota on Saturday.  Tim Gruber for The New York Times

Police hunted for a suspect in attacks on U.S. politicians

Investigators scoured the Midwestern state of Minnesota yesterday for the man suspected of assassinating a state lawmaker and trying to kill a second. Police officers found a vehicle they believe belonged to the suspect, Vance Boelter.

The car was found about an hour's drive from where they think the suspect killed State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, on Saturday after arriving at their house dressed as a police officer. After an exchange of fire with the police, the suspect escaped on foot. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot in a separate attack but survived. Here are the latest updates.

The suspect: A friend of Boelter, 57, described him as a Christian who strongly opposed abortion and had voted for Trump. A senator said he had a list of 70 potential targets that included the names of other lawmakers, all of whom were Democrats.

Context: The attack was a shock in Minnesota, which is known for political civility even as political violence in the U.S. has grown more commonplace.

Other politics news: On Saturday, protests were held around the country against the Trump administration, just as Trump spent more than three hours at a military parade commemorating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.

Three women sobbing and men standing nearby.
Atul Loke For The New York Times

Relatives of Air India crash victims wait for bodies

Three days after the crash of Air India Flight 171, the bodies of only 35 of the 270 victims have been handed over to relatives. Anguished family members have been waiting outside a mortuary, waiting for news.

Medical officials said that the intensity of the flames from the crash had made identifying the bodies difficult. The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route to London, was carrying a full load of fuel when it crashed, soon after takeoff in Ahmedabad.

Investigators, who have recovered the aircraft's flight data recorder, learned that the pilots had barely enough time to call "Mayday" before the plane slammed into a medical college.

Sole survivor: Viswash Kumar Ramesh, the man in seat 11A, somehow walked away from the crash. Read his story.

MORE TOP NEWS

People sitting on a bench with a view of snowcapped mountains.
The G7 summit is being held in a Canadian lodge. Cole Burston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

G7 Summit

Other News

Business

  • Steel: Details surrounding Nippon Steel's deal with U.S. Steel remain murky.

SPORTS NEWS

MORNING READ

The Dalai Lama, with his hands together, sits inside a temple. A statue of Buddha and other Buddhist symbols are around him.
Atul Loke For The New York Times.

The Dalai Lama, who is about to turn 90, is growing frail, leaving Tibetan Buddhists anxious. His goal of returning his people to their homeland remains distant, with China working to finish the task of crushing the Tibetan movement for autonomy.

One of Tibet's greatest concerns is that China could hijack the process of choosing the Dalai Lama's successor. But the Dalai Lama has promised to reveal a plan for finding Tibet's next spiritual leader on his birthday, July 6. Read more about the succession.

Lives lived: Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, who rose to the presidency of Nicaragua in 1990, died. She was 95.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

A woman extends her right arm to throw a ball in a pool, as another woman attempts to guard her.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

ARTS AND IDEAS

Stones of different shapes are wedged together to form a wall with many gaps in a small building.
Sam Bush for The New York Times

How to turn rural England into art: hard work

Along a trail in a valley in England, Andy Goldsworthy has restored nine farm buildings, built a new one, and then turned them all into artworks. In one of the buildings in his "Hanging Stones" project, visitors squeeze between tree trunks stretching from floor to ceiling; in another, straightened barbed wire lines the walls.

Goldsworthy, 68, is among the world's most prominent land artists, yet in Britain he is often overlooked. Over the past decade, he has been toiling in conditions few would see as bucolic. Goldsworthy has described the project as "the most important of my life," because it might be the last labor-intensive work he can complete without help. Take a look.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A bowl of chickpea and tomatoes over a bowl of rice.
Joe Lingeman for The New York Times

Cook: These chile-crisp chickpea rice bowls are both a comfort and a thrill to eat.

Watch: "Families Like Ours" is the first mini-series from the Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg.

Read: Want to start weight lifting? These books can help.

Travel: Spend 36 hours in East London.

Discover: Here's what's coming in Apple's new software for iPhones.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That's it for today. See you tomorrow. — Daniel

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