Weekly News Roundup - 6/13/25
Israel strikes Iran // President sends soldiers into Los Angeles
This is the 24th Weekly News Roundup of 2025. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here.
These weekly dispatches are designed for those who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or those who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
A lion doesn’t have to tell you it’s a lion. Everybody knows it’s a lion. So why spend the 40-plus million dollars to tell people that we’re a lion? - Sen. John Kennedy, R-LA.
A living and dynamic people, a people with a future, is one constantly open to a new synthesis through its ability to welcome differences. In this way, it does not deny its proper identity but is open to being mobilized, challenged, broadened and enriched by others, and thus to further growth and development. - Pope Francis
Sometimes I wonder of the people around the president: Do they know we don’t do this? Have they read any history? Are they like Silicon Valley tech bros who think history started with them? - Peggy Noonan
In rural areas like this, the deeper problem is that we’re socially hollowed out. That happy buzz of community life? That’s not here. There are fewer meetings of the Masons, the Rotary Club, the Red Hatters. Our church benches are empty. In the mountains, there’s no safe place against drugs. One elderly woman told me, ‘I don’t open my door anymore.’ I’ve heard teens say, ‘There’s nothing to do.’ A lot of kids are alone in their rooms online with Dungeons and Dragons. I think MAGA plays to a social desert. - Rob Musick
It is unconscionable that in a free society, those with the power to arrest and detain are not clearly identifiable as such, with their full faces and names and identity visible. Protestors who wear masks are just as anathema to a liberal democracy, and wearing a mask in such a context should be grounds for arrest. But for the state to be anonymous and lethal is a mark of totalitarian societies, not democracies. - Andrew Sullivan
Big Stories This Week
President Trump took control of the California National Guard without a request from the governor, in response to unrest that most observers said was well within the capability of local law enforcement to contain. A federal judge said the president had acted illegally, and ordered control of the Guard turned back over to the state. But that ruling was paused by a federal appeals court, which will hear the matter next week. Protests against Trump are planned in cities around the country for Saturday. The president said this week that “if any protesters want to come out, they will be met with very big force,” an apparent rejection of First Amendment rights to free speech. The White House walked that back later in the week with a claim that the president support peaceful protest.
Israel launched a massive surprise attack on Iran, targeting its nuclear weapons program. Iran responded Friday with missile attacks on Tel Aviv.
Week in Review
Friday, June 6
ICE raids in Los Angeles spark protests that last throughout the day and into the night, with about 2,000 people involved in two locations. Mindy Belz has a helpful rundown.
Saturday, June 7
President Trump announces he is going to take control of 2,000 members of California's National Guard and deploy them to Los Angeles, without a request from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says he will send 700 U.S. Marines as well. Newsom says the president is acting illegally and adds that "this isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”
Jennifer Lyell, a prominent book editor and writer in the Southern Baptist Convention, passes away at age 47 from complications related to a series of strokes. Lyell's health took a downturn after she went public, in 2019, with allegations of sexual assault and abuse against a former leader in the Southern Baptist denomination. Since then, she has been "viciously attacked, over and over again, by those who sought to make her out as the villain, the temptress, the whore," writes Kristin Kobes Du Mez. "Certain social media hornets would never relinquish their self-appointed roles to endlessly harass Jen and other survivors," writes Carolyn McCulley, who made a short film about Lyell. "May God silence the liars."
Sunday, June 8
Protests in Los Angeles spread as federalized soldiers arrive, and clashes turn violent. LA's former police chief, Michael R. Moore, writes: "There is no question that serious unrest and violence have occurred in parts of downtown Los Angeles. Attacks on buildings and threats to public safety must be taken seriously. But this is not an insurrection. These incidents are localized, and local law enforcement agencies are fully capable of addressing them."
Men's professional tennis witnesses the birth of a new age, as 22-year old Carlos Alcaraz narrowly defeats 23-year old Janik Sinner in the championship of the French Open in an epic, 5-hour and 29-minute match that one sportswriter describes as a showcase of "astonishing athleticism, spell-binding shot-making, remarkable resilience and drama of the highest order." It is "a match that will forever be in the discussion for the greatest of all time."
Monday, June 9
Newsom and California's attorney general file a lawsuit against Trump's decision to take control of the state national guard, calling it an "unprecedented power grab."
HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy removes all 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
Tuesday, June 10
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass imposes a curfew for a section of downtown Los Angeles.
Newsom gives a televised address in which he says Trump's takeover of the state's national guard without a request from the state is a threat to personal freedoms for every American. “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes — the moment we’ve feared has arrived,” says.
President Trump gives a partisan political speech to soldiers at Fort Bragg in which he rallies them to jeer and boo at Democratic politicians and the press, in clear violation of Defense Department rules and longstanding U.S. tradition that keeps the military politically neutral. "Active duty members are specifically prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity," says DOD guidance, based on Rule 1344.10. One senior officer at Fort Bragg calls the rally "shameful." "This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution," the commander says.
An Omaha food packaging plant is raided by masked officers who arrest two-thirds of the workforce, leaving the company's president bewildered, because he says he has done "everything by the book" in hiring workers through the government's E-Verify system. "“I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? This is your system, run by the government. And you’re raiding me because your system is broken?” he says.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio orders U.S. embassies to proceed with his directive to fire all U.S. AID workers in foreign postings, despite a federal judge's order halting the move.
Wednesday, June 11
Trump says a tariff deal with China is completed and declares it a "great win for both countries." The Wall Street Journal editorial board declares it a "walk-back" by the U.S. that "shows [Trump] can’t bully China as he tried to do in his first term. China has leverage of its own. A smarter trade strategy would be to work with allies as a united front to counter China’s predatory trade practices. Instead, Mr. Trump has used tariffs as an economic scatter-gun against friends as well as foes. This increases China’s leverage, and, like this week’s trade truce, that’s nothing to cheer about."
Protests against immigration raids break out in several cities across the country, including Seattle, New York City, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Spokane.
A federal judge rules that that government must release Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was a leader of protests against the war in Gaza on the college campus. Khalil was arrested at his home in early March by masked officers who refused to identify themselves. He was flown to a prison in Louisiana, and the government said he had been detained because he posed "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
More than 460 people who had been laid off from the Centers for Disease Control receive notice they are being reinstated, about a sixth of the total who were let go in April.
Brazil's Supreme Court agree to make social media companies liable for illegal posts by their users.
Elon Musk apologizes for his social media posts the previous week attacking Trump, and removes them.
Thursday, June 12
Federal judge Charles Breyer rules that President Trump acted illegally by taking control of the California National Guard without a request from the state's governor and deploying it in response to protests against immigration raids. Hours later, an Appeals Court blocks the ruling from taking effect until it can hold a hearing on Tuesday of the following week.
Israeli launches a unilateral strike on Iran, a major attack on over 100 targets that raises fears about war between the two countries. The U.S. government says it was not involved. The strikes target Iran's nuclear weapons program, killing top military commanders and scientists.
Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, is pushed out of a room and handcuffed by federal agents during a press conference being held in Los Angeles by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla attempted to stand and interrupt Noem as she spoke, identifying himself and asking a question. Senators in Washington react angrily.
An Air India flight headed for London from Ahmedabad crashes soon after takeoff, killing all but one of the 242 people on board. The lone survivor is thrown from the plane before it makes impact with the ground. At least five others on the ground are killed, and others are feared buried in the debris.
Friday, June 13
Iran strikes Tel Aviv with missiles, in retaliation for Israel's attack. The U.S. stock market slides 750 points on fears of a broader conflict.
Trump says he was aware of Israel's plans for an attack before it happened, somewhat contradicting statements by his own administration the previous day.
Interesting Reads
I Ran the L.A.P.D. I Know What Happens When Troops Are Sent to American Cities, by Michel R. Moore for The New York Times (gift link)
Militant Nation by Mindy Belz for Globe Trot
The American Caudillo by Andrew Sullivan for The Weekly Dish
Trump Has No China Trade Strategy, by the Wall Street Journal editorial board
The Tom Cotton Do-Over, by Matt Welch for Reason
The White House Marching Orders That Sparked the L.A. Migrant Crackdown, by Elizabeth Findell, Ruth Simon, Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti for The Wall Street Journal
Jennifer Lyell, SBC abuse survivor and former Lifeway executive, has died, by Bob Smietana for Religion News Service
Jennifer Lyell Was Much More Than An SBC Abuse Survivor, by Carolyn McCulley for Tracing the Throughline
Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance, by Konstantin Toropin and Steve Beynon for Military.com
‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men, by Josiah Hesse for The Guardian
What Keeps Me Up at Night About Kennedy’s Policies, by Michael Mina for The New York Times