Thursday Briefing: Trump is undecided on Iran

June 19, 2025

	By Daniel E. Slotnik

Good morning. We’re covering Trump’s indecision on Iran and a diplomatic thaw for Canada and India.

Plus, Studio Ghibliesque video games.

Three people in Tehran watch the aftermath of an Israeli strike.

Tehran after an Israeli strike yesterday. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

Trump said ‘nobody knows’ his plans for Iran

As Israel bombed targets in Iran for the sixth straight day, President Trump refused to say whether he planned to order U.S. forces to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

“I may do it,” he told reporters on the White House lawn. “I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

Later, in the Oval Office, Trump said he wasn’t looking for a war. “But if it’s a choice between them fighting or having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do,” he said. “And maybe we don’t have to fight.”

Earlier in the day, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissed Trump’s threats and calls on Tuesday for “unconditional surrender.” Khamenei added that U.S. military intervention would be “accompanied by irreparable damage.”

Follow the latest updates, and see what strategic infrastructure Israel has damaged in Iran.

Analysis: Trump’s apparent openness to joining Israel’s military efforts in Iran has his base squabbling along isolationist and interventionist lines, my colleague Jess Bidgood writes.

U.S. lawmakers visiting Gulf Arab leaders said that they privately supported stopping Iran’s nuclear program in peaceful ways.
This maps shows which U.S. troops on bases in the Middle East would be vulnerable to Iranian strikes.
Israel’s strikes on Iran reflect an extraordinary shift in strategy since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, our Jerusalem bureau chief writes.

Two men stand facing each other in conversation with two gray chairs and two flags in the background.

The leaders of India and Canada on Tuesday. Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press

India and Canada moved to mend fences

India and Canada signaled a diplomatic thaw nearly two years after the killing of a prominent Canadian Sikh cleric, which opened a rift between the countries that culminated in each expelling the other’s senior diplomats.

After a meeting at the Group of 7 nations summit in Alberta, the two countries said in separate statements that they would appoint new ambassadors, restart trade talks and restore visa processing and other services to citizens. Neither side referred to the reason their relations had deteriorated.

Background: In 2023, Canada accused India of orchestrating the fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an activist who supported carving out a Sikh homeland, Khalistan, from India. The Indian government, which had branded Nijjar as a terrorist, accused Canada of harboring extremists.

Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller, flanked by several federal agents who are holding his handcuffed arms behind his back. Two of them are wearing masks, and other people behind them are holding up their phones to record the incident.

A New York City mayoral candidate being arrested. Olga Fedorova/Associated Press

Growing arrests of elected Democrats in the U.S.

As Democrats struggle to push back against President Trump’s mass deportation policies, federal agents have arrested or clashed with a growing number of the party’s officials.

Supporters of the Trump administration accused the politicians of using the run-ins for self promotion, but to many Democrats, the confrontations reflect a chilling turn in the nation’s politics.

MORE TOP NEWS

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine walking alongside and Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada.

The leaders of Ukraine and Canada on Tuesday. Pool photo by Suzanne Plunkett

G7: The summit ended with Ukraine securing a $1.7 billion support package from Canada, but little else. Attention was focused on the conflict in the Middle East.
Climate: Britain is bracing for the first heat wave of the year. Highs are expected to reach 33 degrees Celsius.
Business: Nippon Steel completed its acquisition of U.S. Steel in a deal that gives the White House extraordinary control over the new company.
Austria: The government proposed a bundle of new laws on private gun ownership, shortly after the deadliest school shooting in the country’s history.
Health: A top C.D.C. vaccine researcher resigned in protest over changes to vaccine policy made by the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Science: A cutting-edge cancer treatment could offer hope for patients with lupus.
Tech: U.S. researchers found that children with “addictive use” of phones, video games or social media were two to three times as likely to have thoughts of suicide or self-harm.
Media: Netflix announced a deal to show live and on-demand programming from one of France’s television networks, TF1.
Rome: An 80-year-old Italian man drove his Mercedes down the Spanish Steps. It didn’t go well.

China

Autos: Chinese carmakers doubled their share of the European car market in April compared to a year earlier, according to a research firm.
Currency: Beijing outlined a plan for a global financial system that relies on several major currencies, not just the dollar, as part of an effort to weaken the U.S. dollar’s primacy.
Metals: Chinese investors have poured their savings into gold, attracted by promises of rising prices.
A.I.: Chinese spy services have invested heavily in artificial intelligence, according to a new report.

SPORTS NEWS

Two soccer players fight for control of the ball.

Francois Nel/Getty Images

Soccer: The Premier League has released its schedule for the 2025-26 season. Which team has the toughest start to the new campaign?
Tennis: A man who was given a restraining order for displaying “fixated behavior” toward Emma Raducanu applied for Wimbledon tickets.
Cricket: India’s cricket team is a global powerhouse, with stars as big as their N.F.L. equivalents. But is their dominance an issue?

MORNING READ

A series of Tarot cards being manipulated by a pair of hands with red nails.

Reading from a tarot deck in Islamabad. Saiyna Bashir for The New York Times

In Pakistan, many people seek solace in astrology, palmistry and fortune telling, even though orthodox Islamic scholars have long declared such practices incompatible with faith.

Now, the government is cracking down. A bill before Parliament could impose prison terms of up to seven years and thousands of dollars in fines on people who provide occult services.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

A model with curly hair poses with hands in their pockets, wearing a dark jacket and dark jumpsuit underneath.

Matt Lee Morgan

Luxe soccer: FIFA is putting its name on a “functional luxury” fashion line.
Sit-and-run: A tourist squatted atop a Swarovski-studded chair in a museum in Verona, Italy. The chair didn’t make it.
Historical mezuzas: The company Mi Polin makes Jewish prayer cases by tracing remnants of ones that the Nazis pried off Eastern European door frames.
Cello beef: A debate over just how to hold the large string instrument has raged for centuries.

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ARTS AND IDEAS

In a movie screenshot, a young girl in a yellow dress runs through a field with trees and clouds in the background.

A frame from the Ghibli film “My Neighbor Totoro.” Studio Ghibli

Video games that feel like Studio Ghibli films

Fans of Studio Ghibli movies have long yearned to