A 'nightmare' in Minnesota
The suspect in the shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers visited the homes of other state officials. Two New Orleans fugitives are still on the run, 30 days after escaping jail. And there's a new, sort-of-presidential cellular service.
👋 Hello! Rebecca Morin here. Let's hop to Monday's news.
But first: Bye-bye bikinis. 👙 It's tankini summer, but the tummy-covering two-piece set is sparking online debates.
Minnesota shooting suspect captured and charged
Vance Boelter, the man accused of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers, went to the homes of two other state officials the morning he launched a targeted "political assassination," said Joseph Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota. Boelter drove to the houses of the other state officials after he shot and wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in the early morning hours Saturday. Boelter was arrested Sunday night in rural Sibley County, about 50 miles from Minneapolis, after state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed, and Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times and wounded.
'Stuff of nightmares': Boelter faces six federal charges, including multiple counts of murder and stalking. Minnesota state prosecutors said they plan to pursue first-degree murder charges against Boelter. Thompson, the acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, said Boelter's 'crimes are the stuff of nightmares.' 👉 Follow the latest updates.
Travel warning to Israel amid conflict with Iran
Americans are advised not to travel to Israel after another wave of Iranian missile attacks struck the country and killed at least eight people. The State Department on Monday classified travel to Israel and the West Bank as level 4, or 'do not travel,' the highest advisory level on the U.S. government's scale and one associated with life-threatening risks. Americans who are already in countries that have a "do not travel" warning are advised by the State Department to leave as soon as it is safe to do so. Israel launched a bombing campaign against Tehran late last week to limit its nuclear enrichment capabilities. Iran has returned fire on Israel, striking the heavily populated city of Tel Aviv and setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem. What travelers should know about the new guidance.
Real quick
30 days since New Orleans jailbreak
It was like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. Thirty days ago, 10 men broke out of a New Orleans jail, prompting a manhunt for two escapees still on the run. The fugitives, some facing charges for violent crimes including second-degree murder, escaped after pulling off the sink-toilet unit affixed to the wall just after midnight May 16. But it wasn't until the morning that authorities knew fugitives escaped Orleans Parish Prison. In the days and weeks after the escape, authorities caught most of the fugitives. Authorities are still looking for Antoine Massey, 32, and Derrick Groves, 27. 👉 Inside the New Orleans jailbreak and manhunt.
A new 'T' mobile
The Trump presidency. Trump hotels. And now, Trump phones? The Trump Organization, the holding company for President Donald Trump's business ventures, on Monday announced a new cellular service called Trump Mobile. The network will offer 5G service with a flagship plan available for $47.45 a month − a nod to the president's first and second terms. But it's not just a service: The conglomerate also announced a new mobile phone, dubbed the T1 Phone, which will use an Android operating system and retail for $499. 📱 What to know about Trump Mobile.
A break from the news
Rebecca Morin is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY. Got thoughts or feedback? Reach out to her at rdmorin@usatoday.com.
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10 minutes ago
- CNN
Hundreds of Americans have fled Iran and others face difficulties leaving as Trump weighs US military action
Hundreds of Americans have fled Iran as the conflict with Israel has escalated, an internal State Department report said. The detail in the Friday situation report underscores that US citizens in Iran are at risk as President Donald Trump weighs US military action. The exact number of Americans in Iran is not known, and the State Department does not require US citizens to register their presence abroad. Unlike in Israel, where the US is working to establish transportation options out of the country for the estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans there, no such options are available for US citizens in Iran. The US does not have a diplomatic presence there. 'We do not anticipate offering direct US government assisted departure from Iran,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce noted at a press briefing Friday. The situation report described some Americans facing difficulties leaving Iran. 'Security alerts also note Americans seeking to depart should be prepared to encounter checkpoints and questioning from authorities,' it states. 'Numerous US citizens have described delays and harassment along their exit route.' It also notes that two Americans were reportedly detained while attempting to depart the country. One source trying to get a US citizen family member out of Iran expressed frustration at the State Department earlier this week, saying the agency seemed to defer everything to seemingly overwhelmed US embassies. This person wanted to see the department apply more pressure to Iran's neighboring countries to approve Americans' entrance. They also suggested dispatching embassy officials closer to the Iranian border to help. More than 25,000 people have sought information from the State Department about the 'situation in Israel, the West Bank and Iran,' Bruce said Friday. Bruce said that the people were seeking 'general information,' and some of them might be inquiring about departure. The department has launched a 'crisis intake form' for Americans in Israel and Iran wanting to know how to get out of those countries as the conflict continues. 'Americans seeking departure should take advantage of existing means to leave,' Bruce noted at the press briefing. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Thursday that the US is 'working to get military, commercial, charter flights & cruise ships' for evacuation from Israel. Trump on Thursday opened a two-week negotiating window before deciding whether to strike Iran, setting off an urgent effort to restart talks that had been deadlocked when Israel began its bombing campaign last week.
Boston Globe
27 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
A potential strike on Iran tests Trump's propensity to play to both sides
Since his first campaign for president 10 years ago, Trump has excelled at appearing to favor both sides of the same issue, allowing supporters to hear what they want to hear, whether he's talking about tariffs, TikTok, abortion, tax cuts, or more. But the prospect that the United States might join Israel in bombing Iran is testing his ability to embrace dueling positions with little to no political cost. Some of Trump's most ardent supporters — those who defended him during multiple investigations and ultimately returned him to the White House — are ripping one another to shreds over the idea and at times lashing out at Trump as well. Advertisement The war in Iran is exactly the kind of Middle East entanglement that Trump's anti-interventionist base believed he was bitterly opposed to, because he repeatedly said he was. But he is also the same president who, in his first term, authorized missile strikes in Syria, after its leadership used chemical weapons on citizens, and the assassination of a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani — two actions he took pride in. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up To Trump, the contradictions are not actually contradictions. 'I think I'm the one that decides that,' he told The Atlantic recently in response to criticism from one of his most vocal anti-interventionist supporters, Tucker Carlson, who said the president's support for Israel's fight in Iran ran against his 'America First' message. Trump was propelled to victory in the Republican primary in 2016 as an outsider, in part because he forcefully condemned the invasion of Iraq, authorized by the last Republican president more than a decade before, and the seemingly endless war that followed. Yet he said the United States should have taken the country's oil, and ran radio ads saying he would 'bomb the hell' out of the Islamic State group. Advertisement He has said he wants to renew the tax cuts he put into effect in his first term, which saved some of the wealthiest earners millions, while also suggesting that congressional Republicans should implement a new tax on the wealthiest. He has said he supports businesses and also wants to deport the immigrant workforce that fuels parts of the economy. He wants to engage in mass deportation and also wants to sell visas for $5 million. He has celebrated the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a point of pride while also condemning Republican governors who signed bills banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. He has both celebrated and criticized his own criminal justice reform bill of 2018. Despite the contradictions, Republicans for years have been united in support of Trump and what he says he wants, giving him a benefit of the doubt that few, if any, career politicians have ever received. Even when most elected Republicans held Trump at a distance after the deadly attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump still had a tight grip on Republican primary voters. Trump, a celebrity known to the electorate for decades, has obscured long-standing and unresolved foreign policy divisions within the party dating back to the aftermath of President George W. Bush's push to invade Iraq. Advertisement But as Trump decides whether to plunge the United States into the heart of the Israel-Iran conflict, his core supporters are splintering. Trump's announcement Thursday that he could take up to two weeks to decide did not sit well with some of his most hawkish supporters. On social media, Fox News host Mark Levin began a lengthy post by suggesting that the president was being pulled back from what he actually wants to do. 'LET TRUMP BE TRUMP!' Levin wrote. 'We got our answer. Iran says no unconditional surrender. Again. And again. And again. They cheat and lie and kill. They're TERRORISTS!' His anti-interventionist supporters, meanwhile, have been equally alarmed by what he might decide to do. 'Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA,' Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, posted on social media over the weekend. Trump's advisers say that on the Israel-Iran conflict in particular, the president is dealing with a fast-moving, complicated situation that does not lend itself to simple, black-and-white solutions, despite the fact that he has consistently campaigned that way. 'President Trump considers the nuances of every issue but ultimately takes decisive action to directly benefit American families,' said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson. 'The American people trust this president to make the right decisions,' she said, adding that he 'started the Make America Great Again movement because he represents a new leadership that puts Americans first.' But in 2025, Trump is not the only one who can command media attention. Carlson is no longer on Fox News, but he has a show that streams on the social platform X and is a leading voice among foreign policy 'restrainers' who have argued that Trump would be acting against his own movement should he strike Iran. Advertisement Steve Bannon, an adviser who was exiled from the White House in the first year of Trump's first term, has become one of the dominant voices among the MAGA faithful with his 'War Room' podcast, delivering the same message as Carlson. 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38 minutes ago
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Justice Jackson: Supreme Court appears to favor 'monied interests' over ordinary citizens
Jackson's dissent in a case about air pollution rules came two weeks after she said the court may be unintentionally showing preferential treatment for the Trump administration. WASHINGTON − For the second time this month, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has complained that her colleagues are weighing the scales of justice differently depending on who is asking for help. 'This case gives fodder to the unfortunate perception that moneyed interests enjoy an easier road to relief in this Court than ordinary citizens,' she wrote in her disagreement with the majority's June 20 decision that fuel producers can challenge California emissions standards under a federal air pollution law. Jackson's dissent came two weeks after she wrote that the court is sending a 'troubling message" that it's departing from basic legal standards for the Trump administration. The court's six conservatives include three appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term. In a case involving the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on June 6 said Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could have complete access to the data of millions of Americans kept by the U.S. Social Security Administration. Jackson said a majority of the court didn't require the administration to show it would be 'irreparably harmed' by not getting immediate access, one of the legal standards for intervention. "It says, in essence, that although other stay applicants must point to more than the annoyance of compliance with lower court orders they don't like," she wrote, "the Government can approach the courtroom bar with nothing more than that and obtain relief from this Court nevertheless." More: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson can throw a punch. Literally. The court's two other liberals – Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – also disagreed with the majority's opinion in the Trump case. But Kagan joined the conservatives June 20 in siding with the fuel producers. Jackson, however, said there were multiple reasons the court shouldn't have heard the case from among the thousands of appeals it receives. Those reasons include the fact that the change in administrations was likely to make the dispute go away. But by ruling in the fuel industry's favor, Jackson wrote, the court made it easier for others to challenge anti-pollution laws. 'And I worry that the fuel industry's gain comes at a reputational cost for this Court, which is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests,' she said in her dissent. A clock, a mural, a petition: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's chambers tell her story Jackson said the court's 'remarkably lenient approach' to the fuel producers' challenge stands in contrast to the 'stern stance' it's taken in cases involving fair housing, desegrated schools or privacy concerns. In response, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who authored the 7-2 opinion, pointed to other cases he said show the court is even handed. Those include its decision last year that anti-abortion doctors couldn't challenge the Food and Drug Administration's handling of a widely used abortion drug. More: Supreme Court revives suit against cop who fatally shot driver stopped for unpaid tolls 'In this case, as we have explained, this Court's recent standing precedents support the conclusion that the fuel producers have standing,' Kavanaugh wrote about the industry's ability to sue. 'The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,' he wrote.
