Friday morning news: June 20, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

Israel-Iran » President Trump will decide soon whether the U.S. military will join Israel in striking Iranian nuclear sites. White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt:

LEAVITT:  I have a message directly from the president and I quote, based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

The United States has the only weapon that may be capable of destroying Iranian nuclear facilities buried deep below ground, its 30,000 pound so-called ‘bunker buster’ bombs.

Iranian missile strikes hospital in Israel » Meantime, in southern Israel, crews assessed damage yesterday after an Iranian missile struck a hospital, injuring dozens. Evacuations before the blast likely saved lives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called that strike another example of the difference between Israel and Iran.

NETANYAHU: Israel is fighting to remove the nuclear and missile threat aimed at our annihilation. We're targeting military sites, we're targeting nuclear sites, we’re targeting missile sites. They're targeting a hospital.

Israeli officials accused Iran of crossing a red line with yesterday's attack...using so-called cluster bombs which are designed to spread destruction over several miles.

TikTok ban deadline third extension » Another reprieve for TikTok. President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. It is the third time Trump has extended the deadline.

Karline Leavitt told reporters at the White House:

LEAVITT:   the president made a promise to keep TikTok talk on. There are a hundred million Americans who use this app. It's wildly popular. He also wants to protect Americans' data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time.

The president first extended the deadline by executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when a national ban took effect.

Congress passed legislation last year requiring TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app over national security concerns.

Critics argue President Trump’s extensions are unlawful, as the legislation only allows for a single 90-day pause.

Student visa rules » The U.S. is restarting student visa processing after a nearly month-long pause. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has more.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Embassies and consulates will now begin vetting applicants ahead of the fall semester. As part of the process, students must now allow U.S. officials to review their social media and online activity.

The State Department says it’s looking for signs of national security threats, support for terrorism, or hostility toward American citizens and institutions.

Those who refuse access to their online presence may be denied a visa.

Officials also continue to revoke the visas of some Chinese students — especially those tied to the Chinese Communist Party or studying sensitive subjects.

Meanwhile, Harvard is still fighting the Trump administration in court over its decision to revoke a key program for international students.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

SpaceX explosion » A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas exploded Wednesday night sending a dramatic fireball high into the sky.

The company says the Starship “experienced a major anomaly” at about 11 p.m.

NASAspaceFlight.com was live-streaming at the time:

SOUND: [SpaceX explosion]

No one was hurt in the blast.

The explosion occurred while on the test stand at Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site at the southern tip of Texas.

It marked the latest in a string of incidents this year involving the massive rockets.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has plans to build fleets of starships for interplanetary travel.

Hurricane Erick » On Mexico’s Pacific Coast, local officials and residents are surveying the damage this morning after Hurricane Erick slammed the coastline Thursday.

It roared ashore as a strong Category-3 hurricane, packing sustained winds of nearly 125 miles per hour. The winds largely died down through the day. But Robbie Berg with the National Hurricane Center said Thursday that even as the storm weakened:

BERG:   One of the biggest hazards that will remain is the heavy rainfall. We expect continuous rains in some of those mountainous areas, and some places could see upwards of 16 inches of rain.

The hurricane threaded the needle between the resorts of Acapulco and Puerto Escondido as it made landfall, tearing into a sparsely populated stretch of coastline.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, Pixar’s latest and Word Play for the month of June.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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