Hundreds of thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets to protest Israel’s escalating attacks, and to reject U.S. intervention. This comes as Iran’s Foreign Minister is meeting with counterparts from France, Germany and the United Kingdom in Geneva as the conflict between Iran and Israel stretches into its second week following Israel’s unprovoked initial attack on June 12.

The White House said Thursday President Trump will decide “within 2 weeks” whether the U.S. will strike Iran. The White House refused to say whether Trump would bypass congressional authorization for any such strikes, as required in the Constitution. On Wednesday, Trump said he delivered an “ultimate ultimatum” to Tehran over its nuclear program amid reports he’d approved U.S. war plans against Iran. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi said this week there is no proof Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

One rights group found Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people, and wounded double that number. One of the victims was the Iranian poet Parnia Abbasi, who was killed alongside family members in Tehran days ahead of her 24th birthday.

Amid the ongoing assault and threats of escalation, many Iranians have been fleeing the country. This is a dual Iranian-Australian citizen speaking from Iran’s border with Armenia.

Iranian-Australian Citizen: “The worst thing in this world is war. It is because of the war that we live like this, a nomadic life. People are trying to leave the country through all available borders, if possible.”

Israeli authorities say at least 24 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel. On Thursday Israeli President Isaac Herzog decried an Iranian strike that damaged a hospital in Beersheba, accusing Tehran of war crimes. Over the past 20 months, Israel has decimated Gaza’s health infrastructure, completely destroying or damaging 38 hospitals, as well as 81 major health centers and 164 other health facilities including clinics and labs.

In Gaza, nearly 100 Palestinians, including children, have been killed over the past day in Israeli attacks. Among those killed were more families who were seeking humanitarian aid amid an ongoing hunger crisis across the besieged territory. This is a Palestinian mother whose child was killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza City.

Umm Mahmoud: “I have three sons, two died, and one remains. I don’t want anything, I want to die with them, to be buried with them. May God punish you, Netanyahu. May God punish you, Israel and America.”

The United Nations has again blacklisted Israel for committing grave violations against Palestinian children. The U.N. report also says violence against children in war zones reached unprecedented levels in 2024, with the highest violations committed by the Israeli army in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile UNICEF warned Thursday malnutrition among children in Gaza is “rising at an alarming rate.” More than 5,000 children under the age of 5 were treated for acute malnutrition amid Israel’s near-total blockade of aid. This is a Palestinian mother of four.

Hind Al-Nawajha: “You either come back carrying food for your children and they will be happy, or you come back in a shroud, or you go back upset without food and your children will cry. This is life, we are being slaughtered, we can’t do it anymore. …Open the aid institutions for the people, open them, enough victims, enough death, enough. See, see, see, they are shooting randomly, and we’re by the sea. When we go to get aid, our children start crying. They can’t take it.”

In a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, paving the way for other bans on trans healthcare to remain in effect in 24 other states. The Court’s right-wing justices rejected arguments on behalf of Tennessee trans kids and their parents, that the ban on those treatments discriminated on the basis of sex, because they remain permitted for other medical treatments. In her dissent Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused her conservative colleagues of “contort[ing] logic and precedent” and “abandon[ing] transgender children and their families to political whims”.

Trans activists rallied at a Washington, D.C. church after the ruling. This is Devon Ojeda of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Devon Ojeda: “They can say I’m a woman but I live as a man! I Iove as a man! I go through this world as a man and nothing they ever say will ever change that!”

Separately on Wednesday, Trump’s Health Department ordered the national suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ youth to shut down next month. In its announcement, HHS omitted reference to the transgender population, using the term “LGB+ youth services”. One advocate called the move a potential “death sentence” for thousands of LGBTQ+ youth. We’ll have more on these stories later in the broadcast with ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued new restrictions to limit inspections of immigration jails by congressmembers. Under the new rules, congressmembers are required to provide notice of a visit to any ICE jail at least 72 hours in advance, while giving ICE sole discretion to deny or cancel visits.

This week, Illinois congressmembers Delia Ramirez and Jesús “Chuy” García were blocked from visiting an ICE facility in Broadview. And New York Congressmember Jerry Nadler was denied access to an ICE detention unit at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, where advocates report dozens of immigrants arrested at court hearings are being detained in overcrowded conditions for several days at a time, many forced to sleep on the floor while waiting to be transferred.

A California appeals court has allowed Trump to remain in control of National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles as a lawsuit proceeds. As ICE raids continue in Los Angeles, the Dodgers baseball team say they blocked federal immigration agents from accessing their grounds during a game Thursday. Angelenos arrived to the stadium’s entrance to protest ICE after they were sighted trying to access the parking lots. This comes after the team’s management was rebuffed on Saturday when they insisted the Star-Spangled Banner be performed in English. Singer Nezza surprised everyone when she instead sang it in Spanish, adding afterwards “That was my moment to stand for my people… and let them know that I’m with them.” Nezza’s parents are immigrants from Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

The Latinx community in LA is demanding the Dodgers do more to defend immigrant communities, a large portion of its fan base. Dodgers star Kike Hernández posted on social media, “This is my second home. And I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights. #CityOfImmigrants”

The Miami Herald reports the Trump administration detained at least 20 Haitian asylum seekers at the Guantánamo U.S. naval base in Cuba, before deporting them to Haiti earlier this week. This came days after Trump officials had denied previous reports of plans to transfer thousands more immigrants to be detained at Guantánamo.

​​The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have reached a provisional peace agreement aimed at ending the war in the eastern DRC and decades of conflict. Among other provisions, the draft deal, mediated by the United States and Qatar, would lead to the disarmament and integration of M23 fighters and other armed groups in the eastern DRC. Rwanda has been repeatedly accused of supporting M23, which has seized major portions of the eastern DRC, including the cities of Goma and Bukavu, killing thousands of people and displacing hundreds of thousands more since January. The deal, expected to be signed next week, would also allow Western countries to exploit the mineral-rich region, with investments worth billions of dollars.

Activists from around the world have returned home from Egypt after the Global March to Gaza ended. The activists were prevented by authorities from reaching Egypt’s Rafah border crossing where they hoped to break the siege on Gaza. Participants were subjected to attacks, arrests, and deportations as they made their journey through Egypt and Libya. Members of the Sumud Convoy, a North African humanitarian convoy, returned to Tunisia Thursday. This is Wael Naouar, one of the convoy’s organizers.

Wael Naouar: “Our convoy was stopped by force of arms, not by force of regulations or the law. Today we returned after being subjected to numerous violations and many restrictions. We didn’t reach Rafah, and we didn’t break the siege, but we felt that, emotionally and symbolically, we went far beyond Rafah, we reached the whole world.”

Back in the U.S., a federal judge has blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from terminating $600 million in environmental justice grants. Those funds, which came as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, were designated to assist low-income communities of color that have suffered generations of environmental racism. In his ruling, Judge Adam Abelson cited the “lack of any reasoned decision-making, or reasoned explanation.”

In labor news, a Safeway Grocery store strike is spreading across Colorado with a thousand workers now on strike at 10 stores and distribution centers in four major cities across the state. Workers are denouncing cuts to healthcare and retirement benefits, and demanding improved staffing in stores. Parent company Albertsons cleared almost a billion dollars in profits last year while CEO Vivek Sankaran made over fifteen million in salary and stocks last year.

Meanwhile, some 45,000 Southern California grocery workers voted last week to authorize a strike at Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, and Pavilions stores.

President Trump’s wave of pardons and clemencies since returning to office have allowed beneficiaries to evade over $1.3 billion in fines and restitution to victims. That’s according to a report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. Trump’s “pardon spree” has offered the greatest financial relief to “fraudsters, millionaire tax evaders, and other white-collar criminals.”